Music of the Heart
by Tabbycat2000
Summary: Now Complete! Meet Levi- teenage girl with family problems. Meet Peter- amnesia-struck myth. Meet Tink- would-be psychotic fairy. And now, let yourself get sucked into an epic that spans thousands of years...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer- If you recognize it from the books or movies, I most certainly do not own it and do not in any way claim to. Levi and everything you *don't* recognize, however, most certainly belongs to me and please don't use it without asking first.

  
  


Music of the Heart

  
  
  
  
  
  


"Levi, where were you?!"

"At practice, Mother."

"A likely story! I'm not an idiot Levi, I know you run about with those punks at school!"

Levi Morrison knew better than to listen to her mother's drunken ravings. She rolled her eyes and ran up the stairs, making sure to slam her bedroom door extra hard behind her.

"I'm not finished with you, Levity!"

Levi slumped and groaned. When her mother used her full, evil, disgusting name, she knew she was in big trouble. She could count on one hand the number of time she'd been called Levity in the past three years.

"Coming, Mother," Levi yelled back. She dropped her backpack on her bed and kicked off her boots before she went back downstairs, something akin to fear spinning through her. It was more accurately named apprehension and acute nervousness, not fear. Levi didn't fear anything except herself.

Amelia Morrison was standing at the foot of the stairs, standing unsteadily, her light hair tousled, eyes red-rimmed.

"You never, ever run off like that!" Amelia screamed, eyes wide. "Never!"

"Yes, Mother," said Levi dully. "I'm sorry, Mother. I had a bad day at school."

This quelled Amelia's temper slightly. Her daughter's calm, cool response seemed to have disoriented her as well.

"Good. Now, what was I saying?"

Levi didn't reply. She turned and returned to her bedroom.

Levi closed the door gently behind her and let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Mother could get mean when she was drunk, which happened far too often now that Father had run off.

Levi missed her father terribly, but she hated him more than anyone else on the planet. He had left her mother and herself three months before, and had only contacted them twice. Levi was torn between love for her father and the deep, aching hurt he'd caused by leaving.

She pushed away this particular line of thought and sat down on her bed. She turned on the radio on her nightstand and began taking off her socks, letting the haunting melodies of the classical music wash through her.

At fourteen, Levi was still more child than adult. Not physically, but mentally. Oh, she understood how the world worked and was an intelligent girl, but she was too wrapped up in her own fantasies and dreams to pay much attention to anything else. She still had some of her childhood innocence, something that seemed odd to people.

Physically, though, Levi was a typical teenaged girl. She was of average height, with a slender, well-muscled build born through years of ballet training. She was rather pale, having spent most of her time indoors. Her dark brown, almost black hair made a startling contrast to her light skin. Her eyes were blue, jewel-bright, almost unearthly. She was currently dressed in jeans and a black leotard, but usually she wore jeans and a tank top of some sort. She had just returned from ballet practice, which explained her clothing.

"That'd be nice to dance to," she said absently as a high, haunting flute solo came through her stereo speakers. Almost without consulting her, her body agreed and rose, moving lightly to the music.

Levi danced through the entire solo, moving as if the only thing keeping her from flying away was gravity. She didn't even think about the dance, only listened to the music, losing herself in it.

On the roof, someone was sitting on the antiquated cedar shakes. The starlight silhouetted him, showing only the flutter of a tattered tunic in the breeze, a hand tapping the roof in time to the music, shaggy hair dancing about in the cool zephyr.

"She likes music." The voice was a soft tenor, inflection meant to be neutral but the owner's typical playfulness creeping through it. "Especially that weird, float-y sort."

There was the softest tinkle, as of silver bells caught in an impish breeze. Something bright flew about the solitary form for an instant, illuminating briefly a playful face that belonged undeniably to a teenage boy, but the eyes… the eyes were as old as darkness, as young as a brand new day, as sweet as honey and as disturbingly fearsome as a hurricane. It was obvious this was no ordinary boy- indeed, he was far from it.

"Nah, I just like to watch her dance. She's good. Come here, I'll show you." The boy crept down along the roof, then stepped out into the air. Somehow it supported him, and he hovered silently. The golden light appeared again, flitting about, almost nervously.

"See? I told you so." The boy pointed through the window. It was closed and locked of course, and a curtain covered one half of it, but inside Levi danced on, unconcerned and unknowing of the fact that she was watched by a most unusual Peeping Tom.

The sound of bells came again.

"I'd like to, but I don't think she believes anymore."

There was a long silence, filled with the sound of Levi's stereo playing haunting tones that filled the air.

"Let's go, Tink."

The boy and the light vanished up into the sky, and Levi was completely unaware of it. Which was probably all the better, as had she known, nothing that happened thereafter could have happened in the most satisfactory manner that it did.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Levi stepped off the school bus, smiling lightly as a cool spring breeze caught a loose strand of dark hair and blew it across her face. After all the bad weather of the past few weeks, it felt, well, like a breath of fresh air.

Like she always had, Levi walked to the mailbox. She pulled a wad of envelopes out of the typical corrugated metal construction, completely alike every other on the block save for the address. It still read 'Mr. & Mrs. Morrison,' something that Levi wished were still true of the residents. Now it would be more properly labeled 'Mrs. Morrison & Her Daughter.'

Levi jogged up the walkway, absently noting that a cloudbank sat on the horizon. Maybe it would come overhead and rain, maybe it wouldn't, Levi didn't care either way.

"School sucks, ballet rocks," she sang under her breath as she fished the house key from her pocket. "Ashton Marsh wears smelly socks…"

Singing thus, in a way that reminds the reader of her imaginative and impish spirit, Levi unlocked the door and stepped inside, carefully closing the door behind her.

"Mother, I'm home," Levi called cautiously, uncertain if her mother were home and if she were, if she'd been drinking again.

Levi didn't have to wait long for her answer. A crash of breaking glass came from her mother's bedroom upstairs, followed by a string of slurred, extremely unladylike words. Levi cringed inwardly, but marched up the stairs anyway.

Amelia was sitting on her bedroom floor, a broken bottle by her feet. She was holding another bottle in her hand, this one whole and almost full.

"Mother?"

Amelia looked up and squinted at her daughter. "Gimme the mail," she slurred.

Levi obediently handed over the envelopes, not even having bothered to look through them to see if anything were for her. Amelia snatched them away furiously and peered at the addresses.

"Wot's this… Keaton Morrison…" she read, with some difficulty. She tore the envelope open and unfolded its contents unsteadily.

"Want me to read it for you?" asked Levi neutrally. Amelia glared drunkenly at her and gave no reply.

Feeling unnecessary and seeing that she was being ignored, Levi sidled out of the room and walked down to her own bedroom, tossing her backpack on the bed as usual and sitting down to take off her tennis shoes. She was in the middle of unlacing one when an angry shriek came from her mother's room.

"What on earth-?" Levi stood and padded quietly back down the hall, somewhat unsteadily, as she wore only one shoe and consequently one leg was an inch or so higher than the other.

Amelia was clearly furious. A crumpled piece of paper was in one hand, she was beating up her pillow with the other. Actually, it was her father's pillow, but that fact escaped Levi's attention.

"Mother, what-"

Amelia whirled on her daughter, her blue eyes bright with a strange frenzy. "You disgusting creature!" Amelia screamed. "You did this to me! You pushed him away!"

Levi was paralyzed by a sudden feeling that terrifying all on its own- fear. Not the mild kind you get just before giving a report at school, or going on a roller-coaster, but the sort of gut-wrenching horror one experiences when they realize that they might survive, but it was going to be very, very painful.

Amelia lunged at Levi, completely insane. Levi took the blow in the stomach. It knocked the wind out of her.

Amelia was screaming about Levi pushing her father away the entire time. Levi didn't quite notice this, since the next blow caught her on the head and she was quite senseless afterwards.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


A few hours later, the little house was still. One would never know, from looking at the quite respectable Victorian-style two-story house that a little while before, something quite nasty had taken place there.

Inside, Levi was lying sprawled at the foot of the stairs. Bruises streamed across what skin was visible, and many more were concealed beneath her black jeans and red tank top.

Levi groaned, eyes fluttering open with some effort. For a moment the ceiling spun around her, but then it came to a halt. A moment later the pain, absent from Levi's mind while she was unconscious, came back with a vengeance.

Levi let out a small hiss of pain, biting her lip. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and examined herself carefully. She had no mirror, but from the feel of it she had a good-sized shiner developing, and a scrape on her cheek from when she'd skidded down the carpeted stairs. Other marks were accounted for, and Levi stood.

"Ooh, I don't feel good," Levi moaned, supporting herself on the wall. She suddenly had to know what happened, and where her mother was. But first, she needed to lie down. She felt ill.

Levi climbed up the stairs, leaning heavily on the banister. It took over five minutes to scale what she almost saw as an impossible slope, but only earlier that afternoon she had leapt up them in under thirty seconds with nearly a second thought.

When she did reach the top, she found Amelia passed out on the floor of the hallway, smelling of beer. Levi's stomach twisted and she almost threw up over the railing.

She looked blankly at her mother for a moment. Then, quite suddenly, something inside her froze. Her innocence was pushed aside, replaced with a bitter coldness with a speed that was frightening.

"No more," she breathed. "I won't let anyone betray me again."

She turned and ran to her room, all pain and nausea quite forgotten. Hardly realizing what she was doing, Levi grabbed the biggest backpack in her closet, dumped out a collection of old school papers, and began shoving clothes and various other things in it.

Four outfits, ballet clothes, underwear, socks, two pairs of shoes, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, brush, and all the money she had. They were shoved helter-skelter into the backpack. She could have fit more in had she folded everything neatly, but she didn't, and had it been any heavier anyway it would not have bode well for her later. 

Not even bothering to change her torn clothes, Levi pulled on a jacket and her missing tennis shoe, tied the laces, put on the backpack, and ran down the stairs again. She slammed through the front door, leaving it open. Still working on paranoid mode, she grabbed her bicycle from beside the porch, mounted it, and rode away as fast as she could.

As she rode, hot tears of anger and betrayal spilled down her face.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


"I'm bored, Tink, let's go to the Other World. I want to see the Dancing Girl again."

Silver bells answered, sounding oddly scolding. Something gold flashed, illuminating the platform the boy stood in. He was standing at the edge, looking out over his little kingdom. Had the boy known what a roguish picture he made, he would have been quite pleased with himself, but he didn't, and no one was about to point it out.

"You stay behind, then. Help get ready for the siege. But I haven't had a decent adventure since… well, okay, since yesterday, but still!"

The gold spark zipped past the boy, out into the air and amongst the branches of the enormous tree the little house was perched in. The bells sounded again.

"I knew you wouldn't let me go off by myself. Come on, there's nothing to do here." The boy jumped off the platform and was suddenly rocketing through the branches with the gold spark flickering around him.

"Who knows, maybe we can find something more interesting than a girl who dances."

  
  


* * *

  
  


It was raining.

It had started raining, in fact, within five minutes of Levi's desperate and rather foolhardy departure of the house that was no longer a home in the loosest sense of the word.

The rain blurred Levi's vision even more than the tears already had. But the cool rain soothed her various cuts and bruises, so she didn't complain.

The pain was coming back, and Levi was suddenly quite certain that she'd pulled a muscle during her plummet down the stairs. She gritted her teeth, bore it, and carried on. She hadn't the foggiest idea of where she was going, except that she was going as far away from her mother as she could.

She started over the bridge, which was made more difficult by the rain-slicked pavement. She slowed slightly as her muscles gave protest. They would certainly mutiny soon, but Levi didn't care in the slightest.

As long as she got away first.

Levi was peddling up the bridge, going against traffic on the little sidewalk. But the large SUV was coming down the bridge, and the added momentum, combined with the rain and the fact that this particular driver was coming home from a bar, made it a very bad place to be.

The SUV swerved dangerously. Levi didn't notice, her eyes were fixed on the sidewalk and nowhere else.

Then the tires squealed. Levi's head snapped up. All she saw were headlights, coming straight at her like double arrows.

She screamed.

The SUV plowed into the rail. The fender caught on Levi's handlebars, spinning her around and flipping the teenager over the side of the bridge.

The only thing on her mind as she fell was that she'd at least get away from her mother.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Peter Pan was flying.

It was quite a normal activity for him, even though he had no wings of any sort, he seemed to be simply hovering along by sheer force of will. This was rather true, but the fairy dust he'd been doused in when he still lived among the fairies helped immensely.

He drifted along lazily, quite enjoying the moonlight above the carpet of heavy dark clouds. Apparently Tinker Bell liked it as well, she spun and danced about just out of his reach, speaking absently in her own language.

"This is better than staying at home," she said happily, her words as the sound of joyful silver bells. "The stars are so different here- they're prettier."

The clouds beneath lit up with sheet lightning. A mischievous light came across Peter's face, and Tinker Bell saw it.

"You stupid boy, don't you dare," she warned.

"Don't be such a wet blanket, Tink," said Peter absently. Grinning impishly, he dove down into the heavy, tumbling clouds.

Tinker Bell gave an exasperated sound and followed.

Peter danced easily through the lightning flying through the cloud, almost playing with it. And the lightning quite enjoyed it, if the quick flashes and cheerful rumble of thunder as of distant laughter were any indication.

Tinker Bell wasn't having near as much fun. She was drenched to the skin, her wings quickly becoming useless in the wet conditions. She darted into Peter's pocket. He didn't even notice, he was too busy frolicking amongst the bright flashes of lightning.

"This is crazy, Peter, get out of here!" Tinker Bell screamed. Peter heard her, quite surprised at her proximity, and grudgingly obeyed.

It wasn't much better beneath the clouds. Rain poured down in torrents, and lightning came down intermittently. Tinker Bell was miserable.

"Let's go scare the people in those… what're they? Cats?" Peter pointed at the bridge far below, though of course Tink couldn't see inside his pocket.

"Let's just get out of the rain," said Tinker Bell miserably. Peter pretended not to hear and swooped down on the bridge, laughing over his own ingenuity. This wild boy, dancing with raindrops, bore almost no resemblance to the quiet, reflective lad on Levi's roof a few days before. But it was the same person. Those eyes were still the same… older and younger than anything else, filled with the simple joy that only the innocence of a little child brings.

A car swerved sharply and slammed into the bridge rail. Peter heard a piercing scream and saw a girl go tumbling head-over-heels towards the swift river far below.

Great, something to spoil his fun. "Tink, look there! Help me get her!" Before Tink could even think of leaving Peter's pocket he was swooping down on the tumbling girl, wind and rain whipping past.

Levi couldn't even scream. Her heart was clenched inside her chest, and she felt as if she couldn't breathe. Not that it would do any good.

Something grabbed her backpack. She stopped suddenly, the air blasting out of Levi's lungs in a sound somewhere between a grunt and a scream.

"You're heavier than you look. What's in this thing, cannonballs?" said a cheerful male voice, just above the howl of the wind and rain. It had a vaguely British-sounding accent to it.

"What- what in the-" Levi felt herself rising through the air. Panic gripped her.

"What's going on! Who are you! Lemme go!" She twisted in the backpack straps, looking for all the world like a cornered animal.

"Calm down, girl, you're all right. Isn't she, Tink?"

Bells rung out over the sound of rain.

The person let go. Levi dropped through the air. A scream wrenched out of her throat. Before it had even gotten halfway out of her mouth, she landed on something that gave slightly and let out a grunt.

"Stop screaming!"

This was all just too much for poor Levity Lyris Morrison. She passed out, and welcomed the darkness with open arms. It was far easier to cope with than the insanity her life had become.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  


"Uh…"

"She's waking up!"

Levi blinked. A concrete block was all she saw. It took her a moment to realize it was the ceiling.

A face appeared above her, blocking out the ceiling. It was a teenaged boy, about her age, with sandy hair and hazel eyes crinkled in concern. He was soaking wet.

"What happened?" Levi croaked, not at all caring that she sounded awful, nor that she didn't know this boy from Adam. Help was help.

"You fell off the bridge," the boy replied. Then he grinned proudly. "I saved you."

"That so." Levi sat up, ruefully noting that this was the second time today she'd passed out. First because of a punch in the head, second because of sheer shock and terror. The second was infinitely more embarrassing.

"You mean… you fished me out of the river, right?"

The boy scoffed at that. "You wouldn't have been alive to have been fished out of the river. Nah, I caught you. Carried you over here." He gestured vaguely at their surroundings.

It took Levi a moment to realize where they were, but when she did she gave a rueful laugh. "Under the bridge, right?"

"Yup."

"Well, it's better than some other places I could think of."

"I suppose so," the boy replied neutrally. He peered closely at her. "You're the dancing girl, aren't you?"

Levi felt suddenly very self-conscious. "What do you mean, dancing girl? I dance, yeah, but what's got to do with you?" she said defensively.

"I would come watch you dance sometimes," said the boy, completely unabashed. "You're good. Tink doesn't think so, though."

"Tink?" Levi echoed blankly. "Who's that?"

"Tinker Bell," the boy replied. A bell tinkled softly from his pocket and something glowed.

"What's your name?" asked Levi quickly, not wanting to know who or what this Tinker Bell was.

"Peter Pan," he said proudly. "Ever heard of me?"

Levi stared at him, then slowly shook her head. "Afraid not, um, Peter. I'm Levi, by the way."

"Levi? I thought that was a boy name," Peter said suspiciously.

"It is. It's really just a nickname," Levi explained absently. "My full name is--if you can believe it--Levity Lyris Morrison. I don't really like it."

"Light music," Peter said thoughtfully. "It fits you, I think."

"Where's my backpack?"

"Over there," Peter said, gesturing to the aforesaid pack, which was tossed absently a few feet away. "I haven't gone through it. Tink, neither."

Levi nodded and reached for it. Then she gave a soft hiss of pain and recoiled. Her shoulder didn't like that.

"Are you all right?" asked Peter sharply, the movement not going unnoticed. "I don't think all of that happened when you fell off the bridge."

Levi shook her head, wincing and gently poking at her shoulder. "No, I… got in a fight." She looked up at Peter and smiled wryly.

Then she did a double take.

Levi was honestly surprised she hadn't noticed how strange this boy was before. She'd thought him quite normal, if a little eccentric.

He had hazel eyes and hair that would have been light if it were dry, yes, and had a deep tan, that was true, but his clothes were so strange. A tattered tunic the color of pine needles, bound at his waist with a leather belt. A sheath was strapped to it, holding what looked like a fourteen-inch hunting knife.

And were those- tights?! Thank goodness, no, just some sort of odd leggings, looking to be tan in color, maybe made of leather (something in the back of her head grinned at the thought). The leggings disappeared into large heavy boots that looked as if they belonged in a historical recreation rather than on the feet of a teenage boy.

"You're… dressed weird," said Levi lamely. "Like Robin Hood."

"Who's that?" Peter asked curiously, cocking his head to one side. Levi shook her head.

"Never mind."

"I guess I'd better take you home, huh," said Peter, standing up, not meaning Levi's home whatsoever. But poor Levi paled, not having been informed.

"No way! I'm not going back there!" she said, a bit hysterically. Peter looked at her curiously.

"What ever do you mean?"

Levi wrapped her arms around herself tightly and shook her head vehemently. "I'm not going back. Not after what happened today."

"What happened?"

Levi didn't answer.

Peter gave the pale, frightened girl a sympathetic look. "It's okay." Then suddenly his face lit up, as if someone had lit a light bulb in his head. It wasn't too far from the truth.

"Oh! I get it! I'm taking you to my home, not yours."

Instantly a harsh jangle of bells came from Peter's pocket. Out zoomed a ball of gold light, moving so fast that Levi couldn't follow it with her eyes.

Peter looked annoyed. "Oh, come on Tink, its no big deal! You didn't want Wendy and John and Michael to come, or Jane, or Maggie, but they came, and nothing went wrong! Besides, she can't stay." He gave an appealing glance to Levi. "Right?"

"Er, right," said Levi uncertainly. She tried to track the gold ball, which was emitting jangling sounds like silver bells caught in a high wind.

"Well, what else am I supposed to do with her?" said Peter furiously.

The gold ball paused for a moment. Levi caught half a glimpse of a tiny, well-curved woman with butterfly wings, dressed similarly to Peter, but an instant later she was only a glowing orb bouncing around like a pinball. She--obviously it was a she--let out a soft, almost resigned tinkle.

Peter clapped his hands happily. "All right! Let's get her flying, then."

Levi's eyes bugged out. "Excuse me?" she croaked. "Fly?!"

"Sure," said Peter, completely unconcerned by the hint of apprehension in Levi's voice. Her devil-may-care attitude was slowly returning, but that didn't mean she was going to jump off the bridge with a pair of paper wings on her back.

Then Peter caught the look on Levi's face. "All right, just listen real careful. Stand up."

Levi obeyed, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Close your eyes."

Hesitantly, Levi did as she was told. She was started to become annoyed, but her curiosity got the better of her and she didn't budge.

"Think of something real nice. Something… float-y, I guess, is the best word for it. Something nice and airy."

Levi complied, and smiled blissfully despite herself. Her happy thought was the day she'd been accepted for the ballet camp last summer, over at least twenty other girls.

"Now for it, Tink," said Peter softly, seeing the peaceful, happy expression on Levi's pale face.

Grumbling slightly, Tink flew a few times around Levi's form. Gold dust settled on her, then vanished.

She began rising slowly into the air.

Levi was still wrapped in the happy memory. She opened her eyes, intent of giving Peter an expectant look.

She was three feet off the ground, and still rising.

Levi shrieked and dropped a foot, but she grasped hold of the happy thought like a life preserver and she halted.

On the ground, Peter grinned. "See! Just keep thinking happy thoughts, and you'll stay up."

"How-" Levi gasped, staring at the floor.

"Happy thoughts and fairy dust," said Peter glibly. He rose easily off the floor and hovered next to Levi. "Easy as pie."

"How do I steer?" asked Levi curiously, quickly finding her air legs, so to speak.

Peter looked amazed. "You turn whichever way you want to go, of course," he said, trying not to give Levi a shocked look. "How else did you expect to steer? If you want to go faster, though, you kind of… think you're faster, and you are."

"Okay," said Levi nervously. She twisted her body carefully and thought herself into motion, towards her bag. She reached down and grabbed it and swung it over her shoulder, tightening the straps carefully.

"Let's try this out," she said. Then, taking a deep breath, she moved slowly out from under the bridge.

The rain had let up slightly, now merely drizzling rather than an out-and-out thunderstorm. A definite improvement. And it was dark out, so it was less probable that anyone would see a couple of teenagers and a ball of light flying around.

"Follow me!" Peter cried. He zoomed past her and shot up into the sky. The little fairy came back and yanked hard on a lock of Levi's soggy hair.

"All right, I'm coming!"

Levi followed Peter. This whole flying thing was a lot easier than she thought, and she felt delightfully… free. She didn't have to cater to the whims of mere technicalities like gravity.

She soon caught up with Peter. He was floating on his back, arms crossed behind his head.

"What took so long?"

"Trying to figure what I was doing," Levi replied. "Where're we going?"

Peter spun, and was suddenly upright and facing Levi. "Just follow me. Stay close, it might be a bit of a rough ride." He started off again, going rather slower. Levi followed easily, nervously glancing at the ground, but clinging to happy thoughts with all the mental perseverance she could muster.

They broke through the thick, tumbling clouds and into clear night sky. Levi laughed in pure wonder. The stars were so clear, they looked close enough to touch. A stiff breeze whipped past, but it was warm, and it felt wonderful after the chilly rain and frigid blasts of wind.

"Second star to the right," said Peter gently, not wanting to break Levi from her reverie too roughly, "and straight on 'til morning." He pointed it out. Levi instantly recognized the North Star, he was pointing at a star just to the right.

"Let's go then." Levi adjusted her backpack, stiffened her resolve, and shot off through the night sky.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, wow. It's huge!"

"That's just on the outside. Wait 'til you see the inside."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Sit up here and I'll show you everything."

Levi wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were focused on the magnificent monstrosity sprawled out beneath here.

This makes the entire long, obnoxious trip worth it, she thought fervently. Who knew this place would be so awesome?

Mountains tramped across the island, soaring up into the clouds, tipped with snow. Glorious, lush vegetation coated everything in a luxurious green blanket, and Levi could catch the heady scent of innumerable blossoms, even this high up. Birds and animals and insects called to each other, creating a cacophony she could only barely hear. Rivers and streams were everywhere, twisting through the plants like blue and silver threads. Beautiful coves and natural harbors and long, bright beaches characterized the coast. A trio of magnificent three-masted ships was anchored in one of the coves, bobbing gently. Indian settlements were all over the place.

"Where do you live?" asked Levi, sitting cross-legged on a surprisingly firm cloud. Peter was lying on his stomach; chin propped in his hands. Tinker Bell was sitting on his head, buffing her fingernails.

"You can't see it from here. It's in the giant cypresses over the mountain range there. It's not big, but it's great. And the fairies are all over this place, but they mostly live in the mountains."

Levi grilled Peter incessantly for the next half-hour on every settlement in view. He was quite happy to answer her questions. Usually when Levi asked long, complicated questions she was snubbed, but Peter thrived on her questioning. It was a welcome change.

"Now those ships there," said Peter, pointing, "that's Hook's place. Pirate Town, they call it, but I call it the Codfish Castle." He smiled at his own wit. "They're a nasty bunch, but nothing I can't deal with."

"You mean they're the bad guys?"

"Uh-huh."

BOOM!

"Duck!"

"Ow!"

Peter had grabbed Levi's hand and yanked her off the cloud and down a good forty feet. Levi was going to tell him off, until she saw an enormous cannonball fly overhead. She swallowed hard.

"Hook's seen us. Tink, lead Levi home, I'll go after Hook!" Grinning as if this were merely a game of hide-and-seek, Peter drew his knife and vanished. Tink let out a stream of unladylike words that Levi couldn't understand (they sounded like nails on a blackboard, though) and flew off, and Levi was torn between helping Peter and following Tink.

BOOM!

"Fine, I'm going!" Levi snapped at the cannonball zooming past her. "Sheesh!" She dived down towards the island, eyes darting about for Tink's gold light.

"This sucks! I'll never find it now!" Levi paused, glanced at the ships, then the island (much closer now). Then, not knowing what in the world she was doing, Levi dove and broke through the thick canopy of tree branches with a thunderous crash. A branch whipped back and hit her in the head. Knocked off balance, she plummeted the final fifty feet to the ground.

She blacked out on impact. For the third time.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Peter grinned wickedly, watching the chaos beneath him unfold. He so loved to cause mischief; it was one of his favorite pastimes. Among many, in fact.

"You stupid louts!" Captain Hook bellowed, side-swiping a passing sailor with his hook. "It's just a kid!"

Peter snorted. Right. Just the kid who lopped off Hook's hand, he thought. And Hook was right-handed, which added insult to injury. Now the old crook couldn't even write his name straight. Peter smirked at the thought.

"Just a kid, am I!" Peter yelled. "Take this!"

He swooped from his hiding place and kicked Hook in the head. Hook spun, eyes flaming mad. Hook raised his claw, ready to strike, but before he could Peter was gone.

"So there, old man!" Peter crowed exultantly. "Nha!"

"Shoot him!" Hook yelled desperately. "Shoot him!"

All right, now it's time to go, Peter thought, blasting up into the clouds. Even he couldn't dodge bullets. And it was unfair anyway, one against over three hundred. The pirates would've been slaughtered.

Certain of his rule of the island, Peter flew towards the little settlement over the mountains. He even stopped to tease a few parrots and harass the mermaids; he was in such a good mood.

Thus it took much longer than it should have to reach the settlement. The Lost Boys acknowledged his arrival with a few cheers, then instantly went back to whatever they were doing. Peter liked praise, but he liked his men to be busy more so.

Peter swooped up through the tree branches to the little house that he called home, but didn't go in. Instead he peered curiously in the door of what looked like a big birdhouse.

"Tink? You in there?"

"Yes," Tink said shakily. "You all right?"

"Of course," said Peter absently. "Where's Levi?"

Inside her house, Tink paled. She had completely forgotten about Levi. She'd panicked and bolted, completely ignoring the girl.

"Uh… I don't know?"

Peter gaped at Tink through the little door. "You left her there?"

"I panicked!" Tink retorted defensively. She zoomed out the door, nearly hitting Peter in the face, and swirled around his head as she spoke. "What did you expect me to do! There were cannonballs all over the place, and you ran off, and you said to go home, so I did!"

"Levi doesn't know her way around, or even where she is!" Peter retorted, turning red from anger and fright on Levi's part. "You silly fairy! Who knows where she could be!"

"At least I didn't make Tootles shoot her down," Tink muttered. "She'll be fine! We'll just go and find her!"

"Right. You stay here Tink, I don't want you messing stuff up again." Peter dropped out of view, fuming. Tink went back in her house and sulked in front of her mirror. Everything was her fault, where that stupid boy was concerned!

"Slightly! Nibs! Scrabble! Tootles!" Peter hollered, zooming through the tree village, "I need your help!"

Four boys came flying out of doors and out of the tree branches, answering Peter's call instantly. Scrabble had a bit of glue stuck to his nose.

"What is it, Peter?" asked Nibs. Nibs didn't look like much of a Lost Boy- he was almost eighteen, for one thing, and his clothes were absolutely spotless. His blonde hair was cut fashionably shaggy. He liked to keep up on what was 'cool' in the Other World.

"I was bringing back a visitor, and Tink was supposed to lead her here, and Tink lost her!" said Peter furiously. "We have to go find her. We'll split up and search the whole island."

Slightly raised an eyebrow. "Her? Maggie's kid?"

"No, someone else. Her name's Levi. Let's go. Keep an eye out, the pirates are in a bad mood, and the redskins might have gotten her."

The four boys nodded and saluted smartly, although Scrabble got it messed up a bit.

"Scrabble, check the coast, get the mermaids to help. Slightly, you check all the redskin encampments. Tootles, comb the mountain range. Nibs, you check the forests. I'll get everything else. Let's go!"

They all tore off in different directions. All were intent on finding Levi before the others, Peter so she'd see a familiar face, and the other boys so they could impress Peter.

Tink watched from her house, and sighed.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  


"I did it again!"

Levi pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead. Third time in two days. I think I'll break some sick 'passed out most in a week' world record by this time next week.

Wincing, Levi stood up. She turned in a slow circle, taking in her surroundings. Tall, thick trees. Forest debris. A stream, gurgling loudly but out of sight. And the brain-numbing noise of birds and animals and bugs, all bellowing happily despite the teenage girl who shook her fist at the sky and declared she'd never go hungry again.

Oops. Wrong book.

Levi groaned. "Stupid narrator." She leaned against the broad trunk of a tree and sighed. "Now what?"

Streams ran towards rivers, and rivers ran towards the sea, Levi remembered suddenly. And cypress trees grew in rivers. Maybe if she found the coast, she'd be able to follow it around to the backside of the island and find Peter's home. It was a thin hope, but it was a hope.

Or maybe I could just fly straight up in the air, over the mountains, and skydive into the settlement, she thought dryly. It'd be quicker and easier.

But what about the pirates? They'd see her and shoot her down. Levi sank down to the ground and let out another groan.

"They always say if you're lost, stay put. Might as well," Levi mused. She took off her backpack and opened it, just to see if she'd forgotten anything important.

"Hygiene stuff… clothes… shoes… CD player?" She pulled out the discman and rolled her eyes at herself. Even when she was running away from home in a blind panic, she still remembered her discman. And her favorite CDs as well, apparently.

Levi stuck her Tangerine Dream CD in the discman, pulled on her headphones, and started the music. The strange, shifting tones filled her head, chasing away any thoughts of how this was cruel and unusual punishment. She'd only left home, after all.

Clipping the discman onto her waistband and turning up the volume, Levi stood and drifted to the music. She slowly added more detail to the dance, a spin here, a dip there, until she was weaving an elaborate tapestry of movement. And she was enjoying it thoroughly.

"You're good."

Levi jumped. She turned off the music and spun, searching for the source of the words.

"Up here."

Levi looked up. A teenaged boy, about eighteen, was sitting on a thick limb of the tree directly above Levi. As she watched he jumped off and drifted gently to the ground.

"Are you Levi?"

"Yes, I am," said Levi slowly, eyeing the newcomer suspiciously. "And you are…?"

"Nibs. Peter sent me to find you." He grinned cheekily and gave a bow, green eyes filled with merriment. "He was quite concerned for your safety."

"Really," Levi said flatly. "That's nice."

Nibs gave her a confused look. "Why're you being so irritable?" he huffed. "All I did was find you and offer to show the way to our settlement, but no, you have to be mean."

"Show me the way? Really?" said Levi, her suspicions fleeing in the face of potential rescue. "You mean it?"

Nibs paused, then grinned widely. "Of course. You can fly, right?"

"How else would I have gotten here?" Levi asked rhetorically. "Yeah, I can fly. Hang on a second." She hastily stuffed her things back in the backpack and zipped it shut, slinging it back over her shoulders. "Okay, let's go, uh, Nibs."

"Follow me." Nibs rose into the air, quickly vanishing through the canopy overhead. Levi ascended after him, wobbling a bit but otherwise all right. It would take her a while to get completely used to this.

"Keep up!" Nibs hollered over his shoulder. Then he sped up and very nearly vanished.

"Great," Levi groaned. She sped up as much as she dared, just enough to keep the green and yellow blob that was Nibs in sight. She wasn't a speed demon in the loosest sense of the word.

But she struggled on valiantly, keeping Nibs' form in sight. She had a bit of panic when he vanished, but then she realized he'd gone behind the mountains. She forced herself to speed up and not look down. A fear of heights was starting to creep up on her.

Then she crested the mountain range and gasped.

The mountains teetered right on the backside of the island. At the foot of the mountains, right on the border between land and sea, enormous cypress trees rose from the water, looking almost alive, roots arching hundreds of feet up and plunging back into the water, the crowns on the enormous plants reaching up as if to touch the sky. The smallest of them made a Sequoia look like a small fry by comparison.

"Oh, wow," Levi murmured. "That's just gorgeous."

"Hey, girl! Hurry up!" Nibs, almost out of earshot, waved desperately, then plunged almost straight down and vanished into the dark foliage of the cypresses.

Levi gripped her backpack straps tightly, screwed up her courage, and let one thought fill her mind from end to end- faster.

She jetted forward, feeling like she'd had a thousand fireworks strapped to her butt and set off all at once.

When she finally got under control again, she had crash-landed in the topmost limbs of a cypress and was clinging desperately to a slim branch, thoroughly afraid of what might happen should she try to fly again.

Nibs appeared apparently out of nowhere, a devil-may-care grin on his face. "You okay?"

"Uh… uh-huh," said Levi shakily, trying fervently not to look down. "Um, a little help? I kind of… scared myself."

Nibs laughed, then snatched Levi around the waist and took off again. Levi clenched her eyes shut and wished it were over, images of rain and water and concrete and bicycle tires flooding her head.

"It's okay, we've landed." The words were laced with barely suppressed laughter.

Levi opened her eyes and gingerly set her feet on the floor. She looked around, and had to grin.

This place was a kid's fondest dream. One great big treehouse, with no adults whatsoever to oversee the construction.

The level she was on--one of several--was nestled in the division point of the tree's two major limbs, which arched up on either side of the rough platform, giving Levi a sense of stability. This place wasn't falling down for anyone or anything.

Levi couldn't find words to describe the world she now saw. All she could process were vague impressions, the place was choked with kids and the structures seemed to always be shifting, but she got a sense of playful work going on.

A giant scallop shell hung from the ceiling, a cluster of teenagers inside trying to sew on buttons.

Some boys were arguing over something to do with swords and velocity plus edge plus attack angle, whatever that meant.

A burst of song from the level above, then laughter.

Mostly, just young people, milling about, all with purpose in their stride. Evidently this level was a sort of city square, it connected by ladders and slides and bridges to levels above, below, and strung out in adjacent trees.

There were splashes of paint in odd places, like the streak of dark green on a low wall, the orange across the "ceiling," and in a few places a dark, faded red color.

"Weird place," was the only thing that came even close to describing it.

Nibs laughed- he did that a lot. "Yes, it is. But it's home, and that's all that matters. Go over by that shell there, Knuckles and Mad are over there, they'll look after you. I'll go get Peter, you hang tight." And he flew off again, a streak of green clothing and blonde hair.

Levi watched him go, then sighed and began pushing her way through the crowd to the enormous shell. It struck her that almost all of those around her were boys, she saw very few girls. No more than ten, actually. Highly odd.

Levi reached the shell with little trouble and climbed up inside, making it rock slightly. Its current inhabitants looked up from a group consultation over a pair of ripped trousers and eyed her curiously. Two were girls, the others young boys.

"Um, Nibs said that I should come here, said something about people called Mad and Knuckles," said Levi uncertainly, eyes darting from one unfamiliar face to the other.

One of the girls--a freckled, straw-haired, brown-eyed girl of twelve--grinned and stood, one hand extended, the other clutching some fabric and empty spools. "Hello there," she said, her accent unmistakably Australian. "I'm Knuckles. This," here she gave a gangly, dark teenaged boy a kick, "is Mad. And you are?"

"Um, Levi Morrison," said Levi. "I fell off a bridge and Peter caught me, brought me here." She accepted Knuckles' hand, then quickly dropped it again.

"Ah." Knuckles nodded as if this were perfectly normal. Mad waved absently and stuck a handful of pins in his mouth and began trying to get a patch properly pinned on a tattered shirt. Levi couldn't help but grin at the ludicrous sight--a teenaged boy, at least sixteen years old, dressed like a color-blind gypsy, and trying to pin a red patch on a green shirt that would have been better off in a rag bin.

"Anyway, Mad and I, we're the unofficial new-arrival officers," Knuckles said, by way of explanation over Nibs sending Levi to them. "Get them settled. You'd be surprised how often people end up here. Some go home, others stay, some get killed. People always going in and out of this place."

"Getting killed?" asked Levi, suddenly pale. "What do you mean?"

Mad gave Knuckles a dirty look. Knuckles carefully ignored both the glare and the question.

"Knuckles, help," said one of the boys plaintively. "It won't go on."

Knuckles turned to help a young boy with a button. Levi nervously sat, careful not to rock the shell, and regarded her new neighbors.

Knuckles looked like your generic pre-teen girl, even if she was dressed like an Indian. She behaved with a bubbly air that would have driven any baby-sitter insane.

Mad was silent, intent on his work, his rough fingers surprisingly quick and delicate in their movements. He would make a good piano player, Levi mused.

The only other girl in the shell was a small African child, about six years old, cutting patches from a large, hopelessly destroyed tunic. These people obviously believed in merciless recycling.

The other three boys looked like brothers, all between the ages of eight and fourteen, all with sharp, patrician features and a Southern twang to their words. Two were dark haired, the youngest red-haired. It was the redheaded boy having trouble with the buttons, the other two were jointly mending the ripped trousers, needles and thread moving quickly with the ease of long familiarity.

"Levi! There you are!"

Every head turned upward. Peter Pan came gliding down on them, grinning playfully. Levi couldn't help feeling relieved at seeing a somewhat familiar face.

"Hey, Peter," she said. "Where've you been?"

"I could ask you the same thing. Been keeping her out of trouble, guys?"

Mad spat out the pins and said, "No problem, Peter. Where'd you find this reticent creature?" His words had a rich Arabic accent to them that Levi found absolutely swoon-worthy, but before she became truly enamored she'd have to find out about that nickname.

"Trying to fly by jumping off a bridge," said Peter laughingly. "Any empty beds?"

"Girls' hide-away, third hammock on the left, trunk's empty," said Knuckles immediately. "I'll take her, warn her about her new roommates." She grinned impishly.

"Nah, I've got it covered. Keep it going, guys, shift changes in a little." Peter then reached out for Levi's hand. She bit her lip, then took his hand and allowed herself to be pulled through the air, hovering like a snowflake and about as pale as one.

They flew down three levels, then across to a tree near the edge of the cluster. It had no platforms, just balconies stuck here and there before large openings in the tree.

The largest "landing platform" was just below the splitting point of the enormous limbs. They landed there. Inside the tree, Levi saw a large room, made of cool wood. Several hammocks and trunks were inside.

"Third on the left is free," said Peter. "So's the trunk, although in there, I don't know how they have it organized. Girl territory, you see." Peter grinned slightly. "Get settled in, then go exploring. Don't be afraid of flying, its not a big deal. And no one bites, I promise." Peter gave another goofy smile, hazel eyes flickering, then flew away.

Levi sighed, then walked inside.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer- Peter Pan, and everything you recognize from either the book or the movies or TV shows, those ain't mine. Everything else is, and I'd appreciate it if it remained that way. All you lawyers out there- don't sue me for not having permission to use PP, I'm just a poor American teenager with only three cents to her name.

Chapter Three

The large room was a mess. Hammocks hung from the ceiling all over the place, and rough wicker trunks were scattered about with no pattern whatsoever, at least to Levi's eyes. It looked worse than her bedroom at home.

"We're not done yet, out!"

"Huh?"

A gold ball came zooming into view, followed by a crowd of multi-colored light bulbs hovering in midair, all tinkling madly like Christmas bells. It took Levi a moment to realize they were fairies.

"What on earth…?"

"Hang on a minute."

Thirty seconds later the room was in perfect order and looked like a demented military barracks.

The golden fairy—a tiny man with neon red hair and odd clothing, she saw—landed on Levi's shoulder. "Hello then," he said in a crisp tenor, the strangest accent ever imagined in his words. "I'm Carrot. And you are?"

Levi, surprised that this fairy could speak English when Tinker-Bell couldn't, said "Levity Lyris Morrison, in full, although I usually go by Levi."

"Hmm. Well Levity Lyris Morrison, third on the left's free. We've more rooms to clean." He hollered at the other fairies in words that sounded like the toll of church bells on Sunday morning, then vanished through the doorway with the others, a living cloud of light.

Levi laughed. "What funny little people!"

She made her way to the hammock indicated—now evident in the pattern of things, after the whirlwind cleaning—and stuffed her backpack in the trunk underneath. She had better things to do than unpack.

Like explore.

"Start on the bottom and work my way up," Levi told herself. She tucked her shirt into her jeans, then rose into the air and flew away.

Levi plummeted down, down towards the heaving water below, wind whipping her hair. She pulled up and streaked across the surface of the water, laughing with the fierce, wild joy of true flight.

Tucked into the roots of the trees were various small platforms, most of them being used as workshops. One was filled with teenagers skinning animals, another seemed to be a kitchen, one was a tannery.

There was a vague glow of firelight coming from somewhere deeper in the complex. Levi swooped beneath the roots and headed towards the light like a moth to a candle, curious.

It was tucked deep into the root system, what looked like a ceiling but had a small entrance cut into it. The light spilled from the tiny entrance. Levi went up inside.

The smooth bark of the tree completely surrounded Levi. Within the cavern was a monstrous forge.

Teenage boys were heating metal, pounding it on anvils, dousing it in water or oil. Levi saw all sorts of things in production- needles, fishing hooks, utensils, cables, and other things that made her wish she'd stayed home.

Helmets, armor, spearheads, swords, daggers, all kinds of sharp pointy things. She thought she saw a trident somewhere in the back, the prongs glowing red-hot.

A brawny blonde boy in a leather apron squinted at her through the smoke. "Eh, who're you?" he asked in a thick Cockney accent. "You're not one of them water gals, are ya?"

Levi swallowed hard. "Um, no, just exploring."

The boy watched her another moment, then shrugged and went back to beating the crap out of a piece of glowing metal.

Levi slowly wandered through the place—which was much larger than it seemed—and saw the youthful blacksmiths making all sorts of things. One boy was pounding iron into chain links and welding them together. Another was putting together a chain-mail coat, the new steel glittering in the smoky light. Yet another was pouring molten metal into a mold.

"What're you doin' here?"

Levi jumped. A tall, lithe girl, hair as red as the glowing strip of iron on her anvil, glared at her. Her accent was strange, completely unidentifiable to Levi.

"Are you the one who needed to be outfitted? You're rather late, we're going up against them in only four days."

Levi stared at the girl in bewilderment. "What? What do you mean?"

The girl stared at her, then laughed. "You're another exploring newbie, ain't you." She stuck the metal back into the coals of the forge and pulled off her thick gloves, holding one hand out to Levi. "I'm Desiree Svensdotter, sword-smith in training. And you?"

"Um, Levi Morrison," said Levi nervously, accepting the handshake and immediately wished she hadn't. This Desiree had a painfully firm grip.

"Exploring the place, hmm? There's not much for you to do here, but you look like you'd appreciate an explanation."

Levi nodded vehemently. "Definitely."

Desiree laughed. It sounded like wind chimes- surprising coming from this brazen beauty. "This is our shop. We make the sorts of things you can't make from wood, little things that make our society run well. And armor and weapons, which right now are needed desperately."

"Why?"

Desiree looked surprised at the question. "My lands, you are new! Just got in this morning, eh? Well, we're planning an attack on the pirates in four days, the redskins and us and what mer-folk will help. We've been at the anvil for over two weeks, getting enough to arm everyone able."

"Why are you attacking them?"

"Drive 'em out of Neverland," said Desiree, her face darkening. "They've plagued us for far too long, that nasty Captain Hook and his lot." A sudden glimmer of malicious pleasure flashed across her face. "It's been far too long since this sword-maiden went into battle, I can tell ye that."

Levi nodded, disturbed by the darkness reflected in the girl's eyes. "Um, thanks. I'll just go now." She turned and went back towards the exit as fast as she could, trying to escape the tingles running up her spine.

She dove out the hole in the floor, then out from under the roots and into the open air. _Too many shocks for one day, girlfriend._

"This is _so_ Lord of the Flies," Levi said to the air. "There's no way I'm going to fight in some crazy war and get myself killed."

A blonde-haired, freckle-faced girl came zooming up from under Levi. "Hullo, Levity! I've been looking for you!"

It was Knuckles. The girl came to a grinding halt beside Levi. "Been exploring already?"

"Something to that effect."

"Where've you been so far?"

"The dormitory, and the forge," said Levi. "What kind of crazy place is this?!"

Knuckles ignored her words. "I'll take you around to meet the other girls, and find somewhere for you to work-"

Levi seized the younger girl by the shoulders and shook her viciously. "Answer me, blast you! Where am I and what is going on?!"

Fear flashed through Knuckles' eyes, but it was swiftly stifled. She sighed from her toes. "There's no getting around you. All right, I'll tell you what I know, but the only one who can really answer your questions is Peter."

"So start talking." Levi released Knuckles and folded her arms, glaring, her jewel-blue eyes glittering with a mixture of annoyance, curiosity, and nervousness.

"We calls ourselves the Lost," said Knuckles, rubbing her shoulder. "You know all those ads on missing children in the Other World? You know how most of them never come back?"

"Yes."

Knuckles gestured expansively at the whole of Neverland. "This is where they end up, most of them. We're just a bunch of kids trying to survive, Levi, and we can't leave this place."

Shock rippled through Levi's nervous system at Knuckles' last phrase. "Can't leave?" she whispered, more to herself than Knuckles. "What…?"

"Time here is far different. Here we don't age, don't change at all physically," said Knuckles. "If we ever leave, the moment we cross the Great Boundary we age to however old we're supposed to be. Which usually means we turn into dust, we've been here so long."

Levi felt a distinct need to sit down rather than fly. She drifted downwards and perched on a tree root. Knuckles sat beside her, uncertain of how the new girl would take it.

"There's no way of telling how long you've been here?" asked Levi shakily.

"Well, maybe Peter can tell- he's the only one who can go in-between without harm. Sometimes decades in the Other World will pass when here, it's been only a few hours." Knuckles shrugged. "I don't really care to leave here, anyway. Far better than the Other World ever was." Her eyes were distant, recalling some vague memory of her previous life.

Levi swallowed hard. She didn't have anything to go back for, anyway, she'd told Peter as much when he snatched her from death and taught her how to fly. She shifted slightly and a few bruises made themselves known. _Definitely nothing to go back to,_ she thought fiercely. No family, no real friends, just school and dance lessons.

"Well, it's not like I have anything to go back to," said Levi, suddenly determined. "Can you do something for me?"

Knuckles nodded, uncertain of what the other girl would ask but willing to do it if she could.

"Two things- I need a complete list of places they need more help, and I need to talk to Peter Pan."

* * *

The settlement of the Lost comprised of approximately ten trees. Three were strictly for dormitories. Six were used for anything and everything, but mostly the enterprises that were necessary to keep the civilization running.

The last tree was the largest, and right in the middle of the bunch. It was a headquarters of sorts, as well as where the settlement's fairies lived.

One platform was set aside for military pursuits.

Peter was there, pondering a large hand-drawn map, speaking in low voices to a collection of other teenagers. Levi hung back, suddenly uncertain of her rash decision to confront the leader of this bunch and grill him on all the details of this Neverland place.

After a while Peter dismissed what was apparently his military council and stood by himself, looking up at the map with his hands on his hips.

Levi stepped forward, trying not to make any noise. But her sneaker caught on a tree branch that had fallen to the floor and she tripped.

Peter spun, wary, but a grin split his face when he recognized his visitor. "Levi! I wondered when I'd see you."

Levi straightened and hurriedly moved to stand beside Peter. "You did?" she asked.

"Of course. Everyone comes to talk to me soon after they arrive, except maybe the younger ones. Ask your questions." He said all this with no rancor, but rather playfulness and sincere curiosity over what she wanted to know.

Levi took a deep breath, and suddenly realized how ridiculous this whole thing was. But she stifled it and asked, "What is Neverland?"

There was a short pause. Peter cocked his head to one side, thoughtful, apparently being careful to choose the correct wording.

"Neverland was created by the fairies a long time ago, before humans," he said finally. "It's sort of hard to explain, really, what it is." He rose into the air and sat cross-legged, hovering beside Levi.

"Neverland is a sort of no-man's-land, hovering right between your world—the Other World, as we call it, or more correctly being the world of Life—and the one beyond Neverland. You might think of it as the afterlife."

"You mean this place is sitting right on the boundary between life and death?" Levi asked shrilly. Peter nodded.

"Exactly. So here, we're not in Life, so we don't age, but we're not in Death either, so we're still alive. The fairies built this place because they were dying off far too fast." He waved his hand vaguely. "But that's not important."

"Why do all these kids end up here?"

Peter's face darkened, and he went from happy-go-lucky child to someone who has seen aeons and feels the weight of it deeply, someone older than darkness itself. A chill ran down Levi's spine.

"Everyone here should've died, but didn't, because I interfered. It's hard to watch innocents die Levi, even when I know I shouldn't mess with it." He sighed deeply. "At that point, they are actually rejected by your world, by Life, because they ought to be dead. But Death won't take them either, because they're still alive. So they come here."

"Knuckles said that they still die, though."

Peter nodded. "Oh, yes, they die in battle, from sickness, all of that. So Death finally gets its due. But otherwise they belong here, and can't leave. It's really confusing."

Levi didn't speak, just let the silence stretch on as she tried to assimilate all this. Then something struck her.

"'They?' You're not just another kid, are you?"

Something like regret flashed in Peter's hazel eyes. "No. I'm not human, or fairy, or anything else. I'm… well, I don't really know. The first thing I remember is that when this place was built, this little island on the edge of reality, I sort of… woke up, found myself here. I know there was something before then, but I think the fairies might have blocked it from my mind."

"I think I might know what you are," said Levi softly, her almost dead belief in the unreal coming back to life.

Peter smiled slightly. "And what's that?"

"You _are_ Neverland. You're the glue."

Peter seemed to be considering her words, but shook his head. "I don't think so. It goes far deeper than that." He unfolded himself from his sitting position but was still hovering. "There's something I have to check up on. Keep all of this to yourself- most of the others don't really understand why they have to stay, and I don't want them to. I only told you because you believe."

Levi's eyebrows knitted. "I believe what?"

Peter met her eyes with his own, his hazel gaze seemed to cut right to Levi's soul. "You know you should have died. You felt the tugging towards this place, towards us, the instant you came to under that bridge. Deep down, you know."

And she did.

~*~*~*~*~

A/N- What'd you think? Good, fair, excellent, bad, flame me to death? I need to know! 

Also, thanks to all those who reviewed. I owe ya one. I'd write out a long thank-you list but I'm too lazy, :P Anyway, review!


	4. Chapter 4

Levi didn't explore any more that day. She had too much to think about.

She took shelter on a branch of the tallest tree, perched on top of the word from her eyes. She sat there and thought about her situation for several hours, watching as the sun slowly slipped from its zenith to hide behind the horizon, the waters of the ocean going from blue-green to dark blue, reflecting every color of the sunset in between. It was a beautiful sight, but she didn't pay much attention to it.

"This is utterly, totally, completely insane," said Levi, thinking out loud. "But it makes sense... in a weird, crazy, and highly improbably way." She sighed deeply and wound a lock of dark brown hair around her index finger, a habit she'd acquired when she'd permed her hair two years previous.

"I suppose it's a good thing, in several ways," she said suddenly, trying to rationalize. "I'm away from my mom, I can fly of all things, I'm surrounded by other kids who all went through something awful to get here, so we all have loads in common whether or not we know it. I'll never get old, just stay fourteen forever." But try as she might, she couldn't keep all this from sounding terribly depressing.

"You that new girl?"

Levi's head snapped up, a flush instantly staining her cheeks. Hovering in the air some five feet away was the boy from earlier with the crazy clothes- Mab or something.

"What're you doing here?" she asked, startled. She pulled her hair off her finger, blushing furiously. She hated it when an attractive boy caught her doing odd things.

"I always come up here," he replied, rolling his rs beautifully. Levi had always loved foreign accents, and what's-his-name's Arabian accent was doing a number on her brain.

"I'm sorry, what was your name?" asked Levi, trying to cover up her imagined faux pas. The boy sat on the thick branch-compared to the enormous limbs that supported the platforms of the settlement, it was really more of a twig-making it bounce slightly.

"My real name's Omar, but everyone calls me Mad. Something about my clothes, but I don't know what the problem is." He waved vaguely at his outfit, and Levi couldn't help but giggle. Green leggings, pink and blue striped baggy shirt, and a yellow hat, along with the perfunctory boots and knife belt. He looked ridiculous.

"Those colors clash horribly, that's the problem," said Levi mildly.

"See, there's the thing- I can never figure out what that's supposed to mean," said Mad, looking down at his ludicrous clothes. It took Levi only a moment to figure out why.

"You're color blind, aren't you?"

"What's that?" Mad asked curiously, head cocked to one side and making his black curls fall into his eyes.

"I don't really understand it either, but it's when your eyes don't register color properly. Sometimes they can't see certain colors, sometimes they don't see color at all."

Mad looked utterly fascinated. "Really? Odd... I've never had to worry about color before, in the Other World my people all wore black, and there was nothing to see but desert and the odd oasis anyway."

Now it was Levi's turn to be curious. "Where are you from, perchance?"

"Egypt. My tribe were nomads," said Mad immediately. "Since you seem to be full of answers, Miss Levi, why is it everyone here speaks Arabic yet are so pale?"

Now that got Levi thinking.

"Well," Levi said slowly, "to me everyone sounds like they speak English. Maybe it's part of the Fae magic," Levi replied, then mentally pushed it aside for the moment. She could think about that particular flaw in the logic later. She let out a self-deprecating laugh. "I haven't the vaguest idea, you might ask a fairy."

"Hmm," Mad murmured thoughtfully, watching her closely. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but what brings you here? You needn't answer if you don't want to," he added quickly, a slight blush climbing his face. He was painfully polite.

"Not at all," said Levi. She chewed her lip a moment, organizing her rather confused thoughts. "I ran away from home in a rain storm, and I fell off a really big bridge and would have been turned into fish food, but what's-his-name saved me and brought me here." Levi gestured vaguely. "I'm suffering from a form of culture shock, but I'll get over it in time."

Mad nodded. "Pan brought us all here, saved us from some catastrophe. Personally I got lost in the desert and nearly died of dehydration before I was rescued. I've never seen a more welcome sight before or since," he added, grinning crookedly. "Some odd-looking, pale boy floating in the air, holding a waterskin and looking somewhere between laughter and consternation. I thought I was hallucinating, but-" he waved vaguely, encompassing all of Never-Land in his gesture, "I obviously wasn't." 

"Obviously," Levi agreed teasingly, growing more comfortable with the odd teenager's presence and various quirks. "So, what were you doing mending clothes?"

Mad looked surprised for a moment, then laughed. "I forget, you haven't been here but a day. We take turns at all tasks, no matter how menial. Except dangerous ones we have no idea of. For example, I would never be allowed in the forge for anything other than bringing supplies or something else of that nature. They'd never let me anywhere near the kitchens either, I'm infamous for burning food."

"You talk a lot," Levi observed, trying not to laugh. "Especially for a boy."

Mad looked to be somewhere between amusement and annoyance. "I speak so much because I oftentimes have a great deal to say, and among my own people I'm considered a man."

Levi had the decency to look embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Mad. I'm afraid I'm rather too American in my thinking."

Mad shrugged. "It's all right. I rather enjoy being able to get away with childish escapades again." He grinned easily, the slight upset instantly forgotten.

"You mentioned something about kitchens- where can I get food around here?" asked Levi. "I haven't eaten anything since- well, lunchtime yesterday, I think, but time is so screwy here I don't know how long it's been."

Mad, with no apparent effort, floated off the branch and gestured for Levi to follow him. "I'll take you to the mess area. It's time for supper anyway."

"Thanks, Omar," Levi replied, grinning as she took to the air, wobbling a bit. Mad smiled in return. "Follow me."

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  


To say that supper that night was interesting experience would be a gross understatement.

The horde of children and teenagers had separated themselves into groups, each claiming a table as their own. And each table waged war against all the others, with fairies flitting about anxiously, trying to maintain the non-existent order. Fruit and bread flew, and the serving line was crammed with kids looking for more ammunition.

Levi took shelter at the only table on the platform that wasn't crowded with some clique. Here were the odd ones who would rather eat food than throw it.

Levi recognized a few, odd faces out of the crowd. Peter Pan was there, sitting at the head of the table exchanging wisecracks with the other boys. Levi sat at close to him as possible, about three seats away. Mad, taking pity on the confused newcomer, sat with Levi that night rather than join his own circle of friends a few tables over who were arguing over whether or not the hardtack would be more painful ammo than the mammee-apples.

"This place is crazy," Levi said, sitting down and thumping her plate onto the table, making the fruit bounce. "Worse than any school cafeteria."

"Cafeteria?" Mad asked blankly, sitting in the rough-hewn chair to Levi's right.

"Never mind. It's nice of you to sit with me," said Levi, rather uncomfortable with the thought that Mad was going out of his way to be nice to her.

"Don't mention it," said Mad cheerfully. "Anything for a pretty girl, hmm?"

Levi was too busy blushing to answer.

"Mad, what're you doing over here? Oh, wait, never mind." The Australian soprano voice sounded rather embarrassed.

Levi looked up. Knuckles was standing just behind her and Mad, holding her own plate of food. "Hello, Knuckles," said Levi. For half an instant she wondered how Knuckles had received both her nickname and place among the Lost, but shoved the thoughts aside.

"Hullo Levi," said Knuckles brightly, embarrassment vanishing as if with magic. "You and Mad want to come sit with me n' my mates? It'll be loads more fun than this crowd," she said, gesturing vaguely at those seated at the 'non-throwing' table. A few gave Knuckles mock-annoyed looks, but there was laughter in their eyes.

"Not tonight, Knuckles," said Levi, shaking her head and poking at her food with a wooden spoon. "I don't mind if you go, Mad, but I'd rather watch than get drenched in what passes for gravy around here."

Knuckles shrugged indifferently. "Your choice. All right then, Mad?"

Mad glanced at Levi with such a curious expression on his dark face that Levi cocked her head and gave him a questioning look, but he dropped his gaze and stood before Levi could see the thoughts behind his eyes.

"All right. I'll see you later then, Levity," said Mad, picking up his plate and giving Levi a quick grin before vanishing with Knuckles into the crush of teenagers.

Levi sat by herself for several minutes, poking uninterestedly at her food and eating maybe a few bites of the obvious teen-prepared fare. Then a rough hand clapped down on her shoulder and she looked up sharply, startled.

Peter Pan, with those crazily reflective hazel eyes, smiled at her sudden fright. "It's all right, just plain old me. I'm having a talk with the new kids in half an hour at the top platform. You might want to be there."

Levi met his playful eyes, and in the split second that their eyes locked she saw it. Saw the child and the man, caught up in a state of limbo, and she almost felt she understood everything, could see past the exterior of Never-Land and into its very soul.

Then Peter walked away, and Levi felt strangely empty. For the life of her she couldn't remember anything she'd seen in those eery, swirling eyes. All she knew was that she needed to figure out why she felt such odd things in his presence.

She'd never met his gaze, but when she was around Peter she felt odd. It had been that way since the instant she met him. And now things were getting even weirder.

If such a thing were possible.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Twenty minutes later Levi was landing on the topmost platform of the settlement, brushing twigs and leaves from her clothes and hair. The platform was near the top of the largest tree, and was a large circle, about thirty to forty feet from one side to the other. It was completely bare, save for fallen twigs.

Peter and two other teenagers were already there, sitting on the platform cross-legged. Peter gestured for Levi to join them.

"We've only one other to wait for now. Levi, this is Jasmine and Randy," said Peter, gesturing to the other teens. One was a tall, slim African girl dressed in typical teenage fashions, wearing enough punk-chick jewelry for three girls. The other was a short boy of about thirteen, with carrot-colored cowlicks, freckles, huge blue eyes, and tatty clothing that marked him as dirt-poor.

Levi sat as she took in the appearances of the other two, knowing full well they were doing the same to her. She gave a weak smile, feeling rather intimidated by Jasmine's haughty glare.

Not thirty seconds after Levi sat another teenager came into view, this one a boy of around sixteen. He defined the phrase 'bad-boy'- black jeans, rock band t-shirt, expensive leather jacket, enough ear piercing to make Levi think he kept the body-art shop in business all on his own, and spiky black hair. She couldn't tell his eye color, he wore mirrored sunglasses even though it was dusk.

"Hello, Dean," said Peter cheerfully. "This is Levi, Jasmine, and Randy. Now we can get started."

Dean snorted and stood with his arms folded a few feet away from the others. Peter sighed and shook his head, then started on whatever it was he wanted to talk about.

"Usually I wouldn't do something like this, it's always easier for the new kids to acclimate in their own time frame, rather than me dumping everything in your laps. But I'm afraid we haven't time for such things."

He ran his hand through his hair, obviously thinking on his next words. Levi felt oddly relieved he hadn't sought eye contact with her, she was already freaked out enough.

"In Never-Land, there are five main groups- us, the Lost, the Fae, the Mer-Folk, the Indians, and the pirates. The Fae are, obviously, six-inch people with wings who mostly can't communicate with us. Some can, but not many. The Mer-Folk are the half-human, half-fish people of the sea, our greatest ally next to the Fae. The Indians are sometimes our friends and sometimes our enemy, depending on what suits them. Right now we have a treaty in place, but they are infamous foir violating such and after this newest confrontation is over I'm not certain what will happen.

"The last sub-grouping is that of the pirates. They don't belong here, really- they're basically scoundrels who, when they died, found a way out of going to the Land Beyond. They're bloody hard to kill, only beheading with an iron blade-which will seriously harm any of the Fae who even touches iron-will dispatch them. They're led by some crazy bloke who calls himself Captain Hook- he's the deadliest of the lot. They've plagued us for as long as we've been in Never-Land, and it's gotten too much. As Levi has already discovered, we've been forging weapons and armor at a break-neck pace. We've planned an assault-all of Never-Land's natives-against the pirates at dawn four days from now."

"What's that got to do with us?" Dean said sharply in a deep French-accented voice. "I'm not about to chop a ghost to bits with a medieval sword."

Peter gave Dean what was unmistakably a "shut-up-and-listen-you-great-pollock" look. Levi couldn't help but giggle into her hand- Peter was in appearance a short skinny fourteen-year-old, while Dean was easily over six feet in height and in a normal contest could have turned someone like Peter into a pretzel. But Dean acquiesced to Peter's silent reprimand, albeit grudgingly.

"Unless you happen to have previous training in any sort of fighting, no, you're not going to fight. You'll be staying right here."

"I can fight with a knife," said Randy suddenly, the first time the boy had spoken. His voiced was odd-sounding, he had obviously been caught right in the middle of puberty. "Rather good with it, actually."

"That's not the point," said Peter, not unkindly. "But I need you three to realize we're in a bloody big mess, and you need to either put up or shut up."

"Your meaning?" asked Jasmine in a deep aristocratic voice, so painfully upper-class American that Levi tried not to gag.

"You can pull your weight, or you can refuse to do anything whatsoever and be kicked out."

Levi sucked in a sharp breath at his words. She was reasonably sure what that meant- Peter would remove his protection and the person concerned would pass on to their final destination. Not a pleasant thought.

"You don't mean that," said Levi, looking rather ill.

Peter glanced at her, surprised. "I only meant the Lost, Levi, not Never-Land. I'm not about to do that after going through all the trouble of bringing these silly gooses here."

Levi slumped in relief, the gnawing sensation in her stomach subsiding slightly.

"Now that we've gone over that, I need to know your particular skills so I know where to put you at the moment. Jasmine?"

"Science, history, and wood-working," was her answer. The last one surprised everyone.

"You'll be making shields and arrows, then. Randy?"

"Knife-fighting, boxing, and foraging," said Randy softly. Peter nodded.

"You'll be on the hunting roster for now, but you'll be in training to go in the fight. Dean?"

Dean raised his eyebrows, but answered despite his reservations. "Kick-boxing, climbing, and being a great prat," he said sarcastically. Levi rolled her eyes.

"Levi?"

"Dancing, music, some martial arts, and getting lost," was her prompt reply. Her last statement drew smiles from all but Dean, who seemed immune to good humor in general.

"Tomorrow at wake-up you'll be given your schedule," said Peter. "Now let's go, early day tomorrow. And I've got some house-calls to make." He winked at Levi-she couldn't imagine why-then vanished into the night sky, flying so fast he all but broke the sound barrier.

The four newcomers headed towards their new roosts, each one nervous and wondering what on earth they'd gotten themselves into.


	5. Chapter 5

Levi didn't sleep at all that night.

The darkness seemed to stretch out forever, yet was so close about her that she felt as if she were suffocating. She could hear the breathing of her new roommates all around her, but that didn't help- she kept imagining the sound was of Death, coming down to claim its stolen property. Every shadow, every whisper of wind, was the grasping hands of a thousand undead spirits, unwilling to let her go free if they could not.

Before that long, lonely night, Levi had experienced only one such night that came close. She had been camping with her cousins and on a midnight bathroom trip had fallen and twisted her ankle. She'd waited there all night for someone to find her, terrified that a bear would come along and decide he wanted to eat an eleven-year-old.

But that night, alone in a hammock amidst a crowd of other girls, Levi confronted her own fears without ever stepping out of her bed. Once she drifted to sleep and dreamed that her mother had found her and was chasing her down, screaming that Levi had destroyed their lives.

Levi had never found death to be a big deal. On one hand, she didn't think she would ever cross over that boundary, and on the other it was just the way things were.

But now she was terrified. She was supposed to be dead, and the knowledge chilled her. What was worse was that she was a hair's breadth from the border between Life and Death, indeed she was balancing right on it. This little bubble of unreality kept her breathing.

When the sun finally peeked over the edge of the eastern horizon, Levi had never felt so relieved in her entire life. The light banished her childish (to her mind) fears, and she was free to wander about the settlement. When the other girls were just beginning to stir, grumbling about lack of sleep, Levi was already up, dressed, and looking for something to do.

"Levity!"

Levi didn't pay attention the name. She hadn't gone by Levity since she was five.

"Levi, wait!"

This time Levi did stop her flight towards the mess hall and turned in midair, impatiently pushing her windblown hair away from her face. "Knuckles! You seem very good at finding me."

Knuckles was rather out of breath. She stopped and drooped, it seemed, and sucked in great breaths of air. "Peter sent me to give this to you." She fished a scrap of crinkled parchment from her pocket and waved it in Levi's face. Levi snatched it and unfolded it, quickly reading the message and relaxing greatly that it wasn't bad.

  
  


Levi, I need to speak with you later today. I'm busy all morning with the Council, but right after dinner (or lunch, as you modern people put it) I'll be at the top platform waiting for you. Don't bring anyone else- it's a rather crazy load of information I need to dump in your lap (so to speak) and I don't want to frighten the others any more than needed. 

Come prepared for a long, disturbing, and probably extremely odd and awkward conversation.

Yours in unreality,

Peter Pan

  
  


Beneath Peter's name was a tiny inked hand print, which Levi took to be Tinker Bell's. Levi sighed and stuck the message in the back pocket of her jeans. The other girls had explained the clothing system to her the night before (toss it in the wash, put on something that fits) and she was determined to hang on to her own clothes and wash them herself. She didn't want to wear what some other girl had worn the day before. It made her feel weird.

Of course, Levi was uptight for the rest of the morning. She kept wondering what on earth Peter wanted to talk about, although she had an eery feeling it had something to do with the strange feelings she'd had when their eyes met. Nothing could keep the thoughts out of her head, not even the crash-course in fishing that Knuckles gave her.

Eventually she decided to forget about it until the time came to meet Peter. Let sleeping dogs lie, Levi.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Peter was laying on his back, arms under his head, and he was watching the thin cover of foliage above him sway with the afternoon breeze. This high up the wind should have been much faster, but it wasn't. Something about the Fae magic wrapped a protective cocoon around the Lost settlement, guarding it from extremes in the weather.

He heard branches crack and leaves rustle and Tink gave a small cry of warning. He smiled grimly to himself, knowing it was Levi. But he made no move to stand and greet her- he wanted a motherent longer to gather his thoughts, think about what he was going to say.

"You wanted me to meet you?"

Peter sat up, sighing. He stood, turned, and offered a lopsided smile to Levi, who was standing near the edge of the platform with a piece of crinkled yellow parchment in her fist.

"Yes, I did. Adjusting to your new life?"

Levi nodded warily, unsure. Peter gestured for her to come closer and take a seat. She did so, keeping her gaze on him but careful not to meet his gaze with her own. Peter did the same, not wanting to repeat the creepy encounter of the day before.

"What did you want to speak with me about?" asked Levi, sitting on the rough platform cross-legged. "You've already creeped me out quite thoroughly, what else are you going to drop in my lap?"

Almost without thinking Peter sat crossed-legged in the air, about two feet above the floor. He only did it because he abhorred being tied down by gravity, and because he had a splinter in his leg and didn't want to get another.

"Levi... first of all, there are a few things I've got to tell you about why I saved you that night."

Levi wondered why he spoke of the incident as if it had happened aeons before rather than a mere day but did not interrupt.

"I'd been on my way to your window."

Levi was taken aback. She blinked and gave Peter a look of utter confusion. Peter sighed, smiled vaguely, and pressed on.

"I've been watching you for a year of your time- it's great fun, watching you dance. I wanted to bring you here for a visit, but I wasn't sure that you believed anymore. No one else does at the age of fourteen."

"Believe in what?"

Peter gestured expansively at the world around him. "This. In a fantasy place that only children could go to. Where mermaids and fairies really exist. Almost everyone forgets about this place by the time they turn eight."

"Forget? How can you forget a place you've never seen?" asked Levi, both confused and intrigued.

"I told you this place is on the border between Life and Death- which is true. However, it's also the place where children dream. The sleep so deeply that they come here and have adventures, and upon waking believe them to be real. But time makes memories fade, and when innocence begins to be replaced by reality... their memories of this place vanish." He shook his head sadly. "It's a strange thing, to forget..."

"They come here?"

"Yes and no. It's confusing. Call it astral projection- they only come here mentally, and those of us who live here can't see them. But moving on.

"I liked to watch you dance, but I thought you might still somehow believe, if only slightly. You were-and are-rather too innocent to not."

Levi shook her head. "I believed with my heart, but my mind didn't. And if I ever came here like that, I've forgotten. Anyway, keep talking."

Peter nodded and acquiesced to her request. "I was going towards your house, to watch you, but I was distracted by the storm." He smiled apologetically, hazel eyes dancing with mirth. "I was playing in the lightning. Anyway, I saw the crash, and I went to catch you. I was as surprised as you by the whole thing, more so that it was you of all people. The rest you know."

Levi nodded, not really understanding but wanting Peter to continue. "Ok, but what else do you want to talk about?" Her voice dropped to a cautious whisper. "Did it happen to you too?"

Peter floated down to the floor and stared at his hands. "Yeah," he murmured. "I told Tink about it and she got spooked, so I thought I'd try to figure out what happened."

Tink gave a soft tinkle and alighted on Peter's head, braiding her long hair and jangling away in her own tongue.

"She says you look like someone from before, which makes no sense," said Peter by way of translation. "She won't tell me what she means."

Levi watched the fairy calculatingly, wondering if Tinker Bell knew what Never-Land had been before Peter's memory.

"How long has Tink been with you?"

"Oh, always," said Peter casually. "She's my chum." He tilted his head and Tink fluttered off, then landed on his shoulder. She stuck her tongue out at Levi, then made herself comfortable in the few locks of sandy hair that spilled onto Peter's shoulder.

"As long as you can remember, huh." It wasn't a question. A vague suspicion was taking root in Levi's mind.

Peter raised an eyebrow, wondering where this was going. "Aye. What're you getting at?"

Levi shook her head. "I don't rightly know myself. But it seems to me, if Tink is such a great friend of yours, that she would tell you what happened before all this, if it's true that she remembers."

Tink's golden glow faltered and became a sickly greyish yellow color, the fairy equivalent of the blood suddenly draining from their face in horror. Peter's eyes went from Tink to Levi and back again in blatant confusion.

"Never mind," said Levi suddenly, waving off her previous statement. "Anything else?"

"Why did you run away from home?"

Levi froze. Her heart skipped a beat and stomach clenched."Wh- what do you mean?" she stammered. Don't hyperventilate, she told herself.

"You had a pack full of clothes and supplies, and you were going pel-mell across that bridge as if your life depended on it," said Peter. "I know what a runaway looks like."

Levi took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves. "It's a long, ugly story," she cautioned, not really wanting to talk about it but seeing that Peter wouldn't let her leave until she told him.

"I've plenty of time," Peter replied easily, leaning back on his elbows. "Go ahead, let it rip."

Levi nodded uneasily. "My dad left my mother and me about three months ago. I don't know why, but I do know my parents were arguing a lot. Anyway, Mother started drinking a lot and being pretty ornery. She was suspicious of everybody. Anyway." She took a deep, sustaining breath and forged ahead.

"The day I ran away, I got home from school and brought in the mail, like usual. One was from my dad. It was some divorce papers. Mother absolutely flipped. She was drunk at the time. Anyway, she-" She swallowed hard. "She blamed it on me. Kicked me around some. I don't remember all of it, but I remember coming to at the bottom of the stairs. I completely flipped. I just grabbed the important stuff and bolted. I didn't know where I was going, I just wanted to get away." She stared at her knees, unwilling to let Peter see the misery on her face.

There was a short silence that seemed longer than aeons; the air was choked with tension. Then Peter shook his head, sighing, and spoke.

"No wonder you left," he said softly. "Good thing I found you, huh?"

Levi didn't answer. She toyed with a lock of dark hair and kept her gaze downward.

"Levi, are you all right?"

Something about the way he said it, with that weird almost but not quite British accent, sounded weirdly familiar and yet not. She looked up at him, confused.

Their eyes met and locked- they couldn't look away even if they wanted to. Thoughts and memories not their own flooded into their minds.

  
  
  
  


"See that?"

"What is it?"

"I dunno..."

"Look! They're bloody everywhere!"

"What on earth-?"

"Let's go, we need to talk to Phineas."

"No kidding."

  
  


Words, images, thoughts, images, feelings- they raced through Levi's head. She was scared, but at the same time not. It was as if these things had been locked in her mind beyond her reach, and she had suddenly found the key.

Then the stare broke. Levi toppled backwards, quickly righted herself. She was close to hyperventilating with the shock of the experience.

This time, the sensations didn't vanish like smoke in a breeze. They stuck like rubber cement.

"Oh my..." Levi muttered, pressing her palms against her temples. "What was that?"

Peter shook his head, both to try and clear it and to answer Levi's question. "I don't know..."

Levi calmed herself, leaning on a tree limb to stay upright. She clutched the rough bark to try and keep her mind off the strange incident.

"They're memories, but... not mine," said Peter, utterly bewildered. "Who's Piotr?"

"She had my name," Levi whispered. "Lyris... and she lived here. In Never-Land. This platform..." Levi looked around her, looking like a lost and frightened child. "I- she- saw those sparks... but they were fairies, millions of them..."

"Where's Tink?" said Peter suddenly, looking around. The diminutive woman with the iridescent wings had vanished more surely than a snowflake in late July. There was no trace of her.

"I told you so," Levi said, shaking her head. "She knows, Peter, she knows what's happening- she's around to keep you in check. She's gone to tell the rest of them."

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


As it always did, the sun slipped from its zenith and fell behind the endless waters of the ocean. And as it always did, it bid farewell to the world with a brilliant fanfare of color- reds, oranges, pinks and purples. And then, at last, in disappeared completely. The moon rose over the eastern edge of the sea and the stars winked down from their roosts in the heavens. Darkness cloaked the earth.

Levi and Peter were on the beach, sitting on a boulder together, watching as the last finger of sunlight disappeared. Far out from the shore mer-folk were playing, and their laughter drifted to where the two teenagers sat, their clothes and hair flapping in the breeze.

But neither was paying any attention.

"It's strange," Levi murmured. "I'm Levi, and at the same time I'm Lyris. And I search these new memories, only to find that we look exactly the same. Why is that?"

"Do you remember everything?" asked Peter softly. Levi shook her head.

"It's... filtering into my mind slowly. I remember... playing in the jungle, the pet monkey, the fairies coming, our talks with Janus... but there are great holes. I don't remember the end yet."

Peter sighed from his toes. "I remember now. Piotr, Peter- same person. The fairies infested the entire island, claiming refugee status. The Elders told them to go and they wouldn't. We-" he shook his head, and he seemed filled with a great, terrible sadness. "We started dying. We didn't understand it, we'd never seen death before. Faster and faster- the young, the old, everyone. I remember... the fairies had somehow changed it, this pocket of youth. They broke the seal. They tried to fix it." He took another deep breath.

"They taught us how to fly better- we'd always been able to, but they showed us how to soar. Anyway, the Elders started sending us out, to the Mortal World. I wouldn't leave, though- didn't want to grow old, as the Council said we would. I stayed, when everyone else left. I-" his voice cracked and he cleared his throat before continuing. "You- Lyris was the last to leave. She promised she would come back, find this little island at the edge of the world again.

"The fairies sealed it up right after she left. They didn't know I had stayed. When they found out, they... made me forget who I was, everything that came before. Never-Land was what it had always been, but my people were gone... so I filled it up with innocents, as we had once been."

Levi nodded, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "Yes... I remember..." But she said no more than that.

They spent the rest of the night there, watching as the stars wheeled and ocean waves crashed against the sand. 


	6. Lyris's Story Part 1

Music of the Heart

Lyris's Story

  
  


Part One

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


The sun was just beginning to climb into the sky, turning the wide expanse overhead from royal blue to the color of a robin's egg. The birds sang in greeting, filling the air with their music.

Lyris sat on a tree limb high above the rest of the world, playing her flute. It was her own way of greeting the new day- to join her flighted brethren in musical tribute.

Lyris made quite an odd picture. A teenage girl, sitting in a tree and playing a silver flute, her long ebony hair dancing around her in the breeze. She was darkly tanned, hands rough from years of living off the land around her. Everything about this young woman bespoke hardship- except her eyes. Jewel-bright, blue, and forever filled with laughter. Not even her worn clothing and dirty face could hide the beauty reflected in those eyes.

Lyris finished her song and tucked the flute in the front pocket of her tunic. The sun had risen, and she had best get back before she was missed and one of the Elders yelled at her.

She stood up, balancing precariously on the tree limb, then leapt into the air. For an instant it seemed she would fall, but then she flew away, as if she weighed no more than a feather and were being borne away on the wind.

Flight, for Lyris's people, was a confusing thing- they could ride the wind, but no one had the control over their flight such as the birds. They were like wind-blown seeds, only barely able to reach their destination. Most preferred the solidity of solid ground and walked everywhere, but the younger ones, like Lyris, preferred the wild freedom of flight.

"Lyris! Wait up!"

Lyris wheeled her arms, tumbling to a stop in mid-air. She couldn't turn well in the air, sos eh waited for the speaker to catch up.

And so he did. Piotr went cartwheeling past, struggling futilely to halt his forward momentum. He came to a halt some thirty feet past Lyris, but only after running into a fir tree. Lyris kicked her feet and caught up after a moment, trying valiantly not to laugh in the face of Piotr's humiliation.

Piotr untangled himself from the tree branches and sat on the rough limb. "Don't laugh at me," he said glumly. "I feel stupid enough already."

Of course, this only made Lyris's giggles erupt. She perched in the tree beside Piotr, laughing. Piotr made a face at her, though a smile flickered across his mouth.

Piotr looked nothing at all like Lyris- they were as opposite as night and day. He was about the same age, a few inches taller, a year or so older, with clothing just as threadbare and hands just as worn. His hair was sandy-brown, wavy, and always in his eyes- he never bothered to brush it unless one of the Elders told him to. His eyes were hazel- mostly green, but with brown around the pupil. He was tan, athletic, and was usually grinning at some joke only he knew. He had freckles scattered across his face.

Lyris reached over and ruffled Piotr's already untidy hair. "I'm sure you do," Lyris teased. "Where you going?"

"Phineas said the berry stores are getting low, so you and I are to go foraging. Let's go and get the baskets, shall we?"

Lyris gave Piotr a suspicious look mingled with amusement. "Did he, now?"

Piotr gave her a quasi-innocent look. "Yes."

Lyris shook her head. "I know you, Piotr. Phineas said something about foraging and you volunteered us."

Piotr's eyebrows went skyward. "So what if I did?"

Lyris shook her head, grinning. "Let's go, then. I'll grab my bow and arrows, as well- the deer herd needs thinning, I heard Phineas say so."

The pair exchanged clandestine grins, then leapt into the air. Their was a moment of uncertainty, when it seemed doubtful they would stay aloft, but then the wind caught them and they flew towards the village, laughing.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


"Shhh!"

"Don't 'shh' me, woman!"

Lyris smacked Piotr on the head, annoyed, then pointed vehemently through the trees. While Piotr was trying to figure out what she was pointing at, Lyris nocked an arrow and took careful aim.

"What're you shooting?" Piotr muttered. "We've barely landed and you're already in 'super huntress' mode," he added disconsolately.

Lyris gave an exasperated sound and turned to glare at Piotr, sticking the arrow back in her quiver. "You scared away the deer," she said irritably.

"Lyris, if we shoot a deer this early in the day, we'll never have time to get berries, and you know it. I don't want to deliver spoiled meat," said Piotr, his own irritation growing to meet Lyris's. "Put away the bow for a while- I want to find those bushes Garret said were around here."

Lyris sighed and tossed her bow back over her shoulder, then picked up her basket again and headed off through the underbrush. Sighing, Piotr grabbed his own basket and followed her, grumbling whenever thorns penetrated his rough leggings.

After about ten minutes of trudging, they reached a thick stand of berry bushes. They were ripe, branches drooping with the purple-red fruit.

"Here we are," said Lyris cheerfully. "Let's get the harder berries first- they won't squash as easily at the bottom of the basket."

"I knew that," said Piotr irritably. "I've been doing this since forever."

Lyris shook her head and didn't answer. She began picking berries and putting them in her basket. Casting Lyris a baleful look, Piotr followed suit.

They picked berries until noon, when their baskets were very nearly full. Then they sat together to eat- which was, of course, as many berries as they could eat.

"I'm sorry about being so irritable," said Lyris, sorting through her basket for the choicest samples. "Just in a bad way today, I suppose."

Piotr shrugged and swallowed a mouthful of berries. "It's alright. Everyone has their days." Not even looking at what he'd pulled out of the basket, Piotr tossed another handful of berries in his mouth. He wasn't nearly as picky as Lyris.

Lyris finished eating and lay in the grass on her back. "Do you ever wonder what's outside Never-Land?"

Piotr looked surprised by the question. "Not really. I'm perfectly happy here."

"So am I," Lyris said quickly, "but sometimes I wonder what's beyond the horizon, out past the end of the ocean. Where the stars go in the day. Things of that nature."

Piotr leaned back on his elbows and considered the limbs of the tree above them. "It's none of our affair, I think- if there are other places and people, then they mind their business, we mind ours, and everyone is very happy all together."

Lyris shoved Piotr's arm, knocking him off balance. "Be that as it may, I still wonder."

"I think I'll be staying here the rest of my life. Unless you go somewhere, in which case I'll follow you to the ends of the earth and beyond."

Lyris smiled slightly. "Promise?"

Piotr made an X over his chest. "Promise."

"Good." Lyris stood up and brushed the peat off her clothes and out of her hair. "Come on, another hour and we'll have our baskets full."

Piotr stood, sighing. He dragged his basket back over to the bushes and they began picking berries again.

"Your birthday's day after tomorrow, isn't it?"

"So it is," said Lyris softly. 

"I didn't forget it this time! Ha!"

Lyris looked up, giggling. "For once," she agreed, laughing. "But highly unsurprising, considering it's my fifteenth birthday."

"Your point?" asked Piotr innocently, hazel eyes dancing with barely controlled mirth.

"You know as well as I do that girls are expected to choose a mate their fifteenth birthday, Piotr, and I know exactly what you're driving at." She threw a berry at him, and it splattered across his shirt.

Piotr grinned impishly. "Perhaps. But what was that all about?" he asked, pointing at the purple smear on his shirt. Lyris cocked her head to the side, as if in deep thought.

"Hmm... maybe this?" And she threw another berry.

"That's it, girl, this means war!" Piotr cried, seizing a handful of berries and smearing them through Lyris's hair. She shrieked, grabbing her own handful of fruit, and the battle was on.

Within fifteen minutes they were plastered with purple juice and berry goo. They gave up on the berries and chased each other around the trees, laughing hysterically.

Finally Piotr tackled Lyris and the pair went tumbling practically head-over-heels into the underbrush. They skidded to a stop, laughing breathlessly, completely heedless of the prickly underbrush.

"Gotcha," said Piotr between laughs. 

"You're bigger than me!" Lyris protested, laughing just as hard as her companion. "Cheater!"

"Maybe so," said Piotr amiably, his laughter dying away. "But it's ever so much fun."

"Mmm," Lyris murmured vaguely. "You should be ashamed, Piotr, chasing girls like that."

"Nah." Piotr shook his head. "I just chase you."

Lyris gave Piotr a questioning look, then shook her head. "This is ridiculous- just be quiet and kiss me before I make you."

Piotr laughed and quickly complied. The kiss started out playful, almost teasing, but Lyris was having none of that.

After a moment Piotr pulled back sharply, ears bright red. "The Elders will be upset if we're gone too long," he murmured. "Come on." He stood and went to get his basket.

Lyris stood, brushing herself off out of habit. "Convenient excuse," she said teasingly. "In a few days, though, I'll have you all to myself."

Piotr picked up his basket and grinned impishly at Lyris. "Uh huh. I'm sure you're just dying to have some attractive male specimen move into your hut."

"Something like that." Lyris picked up her own basket. "We'll drop these off, then go hunting. I want venison for supper."

"No one ever expects a hunting party, however small, to get back before dark," said Piotr mildly.

"Exactly."

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Lyris dropped to the ground, landed with a thump, just barely kept her balance and the basket. Piotr made a similar landing a few yards away, accidently spilling a few berries in the process.

"Lyris!"

Lyris jumped and turned sharply. Miriel came thundering up the dirt path, her face twisted into a grimace. To Lyris she was beyond ancient, to us Miriel would look no older than twenty-five- still young. But Lyris's people had a strange internal clock.

"Yes, Miriel?" asked Lyris innocently. Piotr, sensing an imminent confrontation, headed towards the storage huts with his basket of berries.

"Where have you been all day?!"

"Foraging," said Lyris bluntly, lifting her chin in defiance of the Elder's wrath. "Why?"

"I told you last night that you were to tend the fire today."

Lyris paled. Uh oh. I forgot. "I don't remember anything about that," she lied. 

Miriel gave the younger girl her trademark 'if you're lying you're worse than dead meat, missy' look. Apparently sensing no deception, she shook her head. "Get those berries taken care of."

"Yes, Elder." Lyris scuttled away up the path, clutching her berries as if they were a lifeline. Which in some respects, they were.

Piotr was waiting for her there, clutching his own now-empty basket. "What was that about?"

Lyris shook her head. "Nothing that matters. Take these, I'm going to change my clothes." She shoved the basket into Piotr's arms and took off running for her hut.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


"Piotr, gimme the bow!" Lyris hissed. Piotr childishly moved the wooden bow out of Lyris's reach. "It's my turn!"

"We haven't seen any game at all thanks to your foolish blundering about and being louder than an entire tribe of Indians, gimme the bow back!"

Piotr rolled his eyes and relinquished the weapon. Lyris snatched it away without a word.

"You're cranky," he observed.

"Because some idiot seems more intent on scaring the food away than catching it," Lyris retorted. "It's too dark now anyway, may as well head back."

"Oh, all right," Piotr mumbled. "I don't want to go back to that bunch of sillies, but that's besides the point." He jumped into the air, almost not making it, but there was a breeze and it was just enough to buoy him up. "Race you?"

Lyris snorted. "Try to keep up!" In an instant she was in the air and rising above the trees. Piotr went after her as fast as her could- which wasn't very fast.

By the time they had reached the clear air above the canopy of trees, neither was very interested in racing anymore. They drifted homewards idly, floating on their backs and watching the sky. They never really got an opportunity to just have fun, and they were going to take full advantage of it.

"To touch the stars, to truly fly, is something for birds and not I," Lyris sang softly. "But I can dream, and try to soar." Her voice drifted off. She never liked the rest of the song much.

Piotr picked up where she left off. "Here I'm tied down to the earth, for I have duties I cannot shirk, but someday I'll Fade, and then I'll fly, to join the stars up in the sky."

"I don't really like that song," said Lyris when Piotr finished. "We can fly, but we're not good at it. We need wind. And I don't want to be here all my life, doing the same things over and over."

Piotr didn't reply. His attention was focused elsewhere. "What's that?" he murmured to himself.

Lyris turned herself to a standing position in the air. "What's what?"

Piotr made the same maneuver and pointed. Almost beyond their vision was a tiny red speck, like a spark caught in the wind. Lyris squinted at it, then shook her head.

"I dunno... look!"

As if by magic, the sky was suddenly filled with innumerable sparks of light- red, green, gold, silver, purple, almost every color under the sun.

Almost without thinking, the two teens landed in a tree so they could watch without the added complications of trying to stay aloft. Lyris found Piotr's hand and clutched it, afraid without knowing exactly why.

"They're pretty," Piotr said vaguely, watching with detached interest. But some odd feeling was twisting itself around Lyris's heart, and she could think of nothing to say.

The little specks grew larger and larger, closer and closer, until balls of light were pelting downwards into the trees. It was like it was raining color.

One of the balls smacked into Peter's arm. Before it could get away he snatched it with his free hand, holding it tightly. The light dimmed slightly and the globe of red light became a tiny woman, struggling to free herself and yelling in a language that sounded like bells.

She had wings.

Piotr stiffened in shock and released the tiny creature, which whizzed away instantly. He and Lyris exchanged looks of shocked incredulity.

"Let's get back. Now."

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


The flight home seemed long and terrifying, but it was maybe fifteen minutes in length. It was still raining lights, and Lyris shrieked when one hit her on the shoulder.

The village was silent, almost- everyone had retired for the night. Without consulting each other, Piotr and Lyris ran around making as much noise as possible, yelling hoarsely about tiny people that glowed and a rain of fire.

Phineas scrambled out of his hut, half-dressed. "What on earth-" He cut himself off and his eyes widened at the sight of the glowing balls descending from the sky. "Oh my," he said weakly.

Lyris ran over to the Elder and latched onto his wrist. "They're little glowing people," she said frantically. "They're coming down like rain. And- and they have wings."

Phineas nodded and absently pushed Lyris away, eyes focused on the insane sight above him. Then he looked down at the rather hysterical girl beside him. "Find the other Elders. Tell them to meet me at the Council Circle within five minutes." Then he strode away, a commanding figure despite the fact he wore nothing more than breeches and a loose nightshirt.

Grateful for the task to set her harried mind to, Lyris set to it with great determination. Most of the Elders were headed to the Council Circle anyway, but she had to awaken a few and actually bodily remove Miriel from her bed.

After she'd found and referred them all, she ran pell-mell towards the Circle herself, determined to listen in. But she ran into something and fell with an almost inaudible "oomph." 

Someone grabbed her wrists and pulled her up again. "Gonna eavesdrop?"

It was Piotr. Lyris nodded. "Yeah. You?"

"Let's go."

They bolted up the hill together, coming to a stop just before they reached the Circle. They took refuge in a tree and watched from above, hardly breathing for fear even that small sound would drown out the voices of the Elders.

"I warned them," Phineas was growling, utterly furious. "I told their emissary that more magic is going to completely destroy what we've managed here- now look what they've done."

"So... what do we do about it?" asked Eros, glancing at his fellow Elders.

Phineas threw his hands in the air, the gesture both angry and completely helpless. "I don't know. We could make them leave, but the damage has been done, and none of us can patch a hole this big. No one can."

Miriel sucked in a deep breath. "How long do you think we have? Six months?"

"No more than that," Phineas agreed. He sat heavily on a tree stump, suddenly careworn. "If we combined our power with that of the mer-folk and the aborigines, we still wouldn't be able to fix it. Only the fairies can do it at this point, but you all know how selfish the little buggers can be."

Something twisted in Lyris's chest, some weird premonition of the future. Which was insane, obviously, but she could always tell when big changes were coming, and they were barreling in on them from all sides right now. She pushed such thoughts aside and focused her thoughts on the Elders below.

"Should we tell the others?"

Phineas shook his head miserably. "Not yet. We should try to get Them to help us, and if they won't, then we'll start getting everyone out of here."

There were several sharp gasps.

"Leave?!" Miriel demanded. "Are you insane, Phineas? To go back to the Mortal World, to grow old and die? I'd rather stay and Fade than face that place."

"There we could live longer, here- time is beginning to creep back in even as we speak, Miriel, and it will not be kind. You know our days are years to mortals, every one among us would be an old crone within the year, save the youngest children." Phineas stood and pulled on his hair- thick, dark brown, healthy. No one aged very much in Never-Land.

Daziel sighed from the depths of his soul, it seemed. "I will seek out their leader, confront him. Maybe we can sort this out."

There was a long silence, filled with unspoken words.

They will not listen, you know that.

But I must try. And if I don't, no none will.

We will lose our home to these squatters, who would destroy our world and make it theirs. Where is the life in that?

That is why we must fight back as best we can.

"Wow," Piotr whispered, just loud enough for Lyris to hear. They were squished together on the tree limb and she could feel his breath on her neck; he wasn't speaking very loudly. "There's a lot they're not saying. A lot they never told anyone."

Lyris nodded absently. "Let's go. Get some sleep. I have something I need to do early in the morning."

Piotr glanced at her, uncertain, then understanding stole across his face. "I'll go with you."

Lyris nodded and slid off the branch without a sound. None of the Elders were paying any attention, she and Piotr reached the huts without any of their leaders even knowing they were there.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


The tide was coming in, crashing against the boulders with bone-shattering force and sending sprays into the air. The breeze smelled of salt. All Lyris could hear was the pounding waves, gull-cries, and the haunting far-away sound of siren song. They lived only just beneath the waves, and their voices could almost always be heard.

Lyris picked her way through the debris on the sand, making her way to the cliffs that stuck out into the water. At the very base was a black, gaping hole. A sea-cave.

Piotr came meandering after Lyris, following her lead. He didn't come here nearly as often as she did and was more than happy to let her lead.

When they reached the cavern mouth Piotr produced a torch from his rucksack and lit it with a flint and steel. The flickering orange light didn't illuminate much, but it suited their purposes.

It took fifteen minutes to reach the main cavern. It was mostly dark, but there was a water-cut exit to the outside under the surface of the salty lake in the cave and some sunlight found its way inside, reflected by salt crystals.

"Janus!" Lyris yelled, her voice echoing. "Janus, I need to speak with you!"

There was a short, tension-filled pause. Then the surface of the water exploded outward, soaking the two teens and dowsing the torch.

"Lyris! To what do I owe this rare honor?"

It was an enormous pale blue water-dragon. His great, blunt head was dominated by large black eyes, and it looked clumsy attached to his long, slender body with the too-short legs, but underwater he had no equal. His long, flat tail and short paddle-like legs gave him speed that no one could challenge, not even the mer-folk.

Janus curled up on the dry cave floor, dripping wet and glistening like a giant opal in the dim light. He considered his visitors with a cocked head and laughing eyes.

"Hello Lyris, Piotr- why such long faces?"

"Did you see the people coming from the sky?" Piotr blurted. "Little glowing people with wings?"

Janus drew back slightly, an almost shocked expression on his great muzzled face. "The Fae? What on earth could they be doing here?" But the way he spoke, it almost seemed he knew.

"What are the Fae, Janus? Why does Phineas think we have to leave? He kept saying something about a hole," said Lyris quickly, as if afraid she'd never get a chance to ask the questions a second time.

"One at a time," Janus chuckled, the deep sound reverberating in the cavern. "The Fae are tiny people with wings who generate their own light from within. Color depends completely on heredity. They are the worst turncoats you'll ever meet- you'll think one was your best friend, then find out they've been reporting your every movement to their leaders."

"And the rest of it?" pressed Piotr, just as eager for information as Lyris.

"The hole," said Janus heavily, "that Phineas was speaking of meant the magic bubble this land resides inside. Because of the way it was made-on the border between the Deathless Lands and the Mortal World-time is distorted, and so the first who settled here created a ward that would protect from the ravages of time. When ones' time came to pass on, they would Fade from existence rather than just die, which is most uncomfortable. And they would never age beyond twenty-five or so. Well, the Fae-little scoundrels-came here without permission and have punched a hole in it, bringing Mortal time with them. No one is left who knows the secrets that made the boundary, only how to manage it. And so, I'm afraid that something drastic will have to be done." Janus let out a little sigh and shook his head, blinking his great black eyes. "Yes, something very drastic."

Lyris sat on the gravelly cavern floor beside Janus's head. "Janus," she asked quietly, "will we really have to leave?"

Janus turned his head to look down at her, face grave. "Most likely so. But that is how it must be- your own people came here through much the same circumstances, and at some point, long from now, you may come here again. Who knows?"

"We'll get old fast," said Piotr. It was not a question. "I don't want that to happen."

Janus looked up at the youth, who was standing rather askance with his hands shoved in his pockets. "Aging isn't something you can escape, lad," he said, not unkindly. "But take my advice- this is going to shorten your time, so make the most of it." He glanced at Lyris, who flushed.

"Anything you'd like to ask me about?"

"Will we have to leave?" asked Lyris in a small, disturbing child-like voice. Janus shook his head.

"I'm uncertain, but it is very likely. Don't worry about it- when the time comes, you'll be more than happy to escape."

There seemed to be some odd knowledge in the way he spoke. But Janus just gave the two youths a nod, then slid beneath the water again without so much as a backward glance.

Lyris stood up and watched the ripples in the water fading away to nothing while Piotr relit the torch. When the dim light was augmented by the orange-red glow, Lyris sighed and turned back towards the exit. "Janus gets that way sometimes- you think he's answered all your questions, when really he's only been blowing hot air out his snout."

Piotr's brow furrowed as he followed Lyris down the stone corridor. "I'm not sure I follow."

"He says just enough to get you to leave," Lyris said, by way of explanation. "Sometimes I think he knows more than anyone in the universe, and others I think I'm talking to a lump of blue mud."

"Maybe we don't need to know everything," said Piotr mildly. "I don't want to- it would seriously take the fun out of life."

Lyris looked at him over her shoulder, a vague smile flickering across her face. "Maybe so, but when things start getting bad, I want to know how to deal with it."

"Fly by the seat of your pants, that's how," Piotr replied, grinning. Everyone knew that flight in a sitting position was incredibly hard, so it had become a catch-phrase. "How else?"

Lyris made an irritated noise in the back of her throat and faced front again, picking her way amongst stalagmites. "I don't like not knowing," she said, mostly to herself. "At least about the big stuff."

"Don't worry about it. Everything will work out- always does."

By now they had reached the cavern mouth and stepped out into the mid-morning sun. Lyris pushed a stray lock of hair off her forehead and took a deep breath- she could get slightly claustrophobic at times.

Piotr dowsed the torch in a convenient tide pool, then stuffed it back in his rucksack. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to try and find out where all these Fae creatures have gone. Come with me?"

Lyris looked back at the cavern mouth for a moment, considering, then met Piotr's hazel gaze with her own. Her eyes were sparkling blue, harder than diamonds with newfound determination.

"Let's go."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer- Levi is mine, Janus is mine, and if you don't recognize it from the book or the movies, it's mine. This is only my envisioning of Never-Land and its nature, not anyone else's. And if you do recognize it, it belongs to someone else and isn't mine. That said, read on, noble... er, reader. :D

  
  


Chapter Seven 

The Persistence of Memory

  
  
  
  


She woke slowly, her senses coming online one by one. First she was aware of the sound of siren song, tickling at the edges of her hearing. Then the crash of ocean waves and the early-morning squalling of seabirds.

Next came the salty-sweet smell of the sea, and a strange, but oddly comforting scent she almost felt she recognized. 

And then she realized she had sand all over her face and the awful stuff and found its way into her clothes, and that there was something warm next to her.

She opened her eyes blearily, wincing at the bright sunshine. She was confused- how had she ended up on the beach? She'd been flying towards the jungle, looking for those dratted fairies...

Levi sucked in a deep breath, all her memories snapping back into their proper place. She'd been dreaming, that was all. But it seemed so real.

Levi suddenly flushed, realizing what a compromising situation she was in. She'd fallen asleep on the beach, and apparently so had Peter. They were curled up together far closer than she was comfortable with. She stood sharply, almost regretful for an instant, but she brushed it away and looked down at Peter.

He hadn't even flinched. He looked rather childlike, curled up like that with sand stuck to him. He murmured something in his sleep.

Levi froze. It sounded suspiciously like the name Lyris.

"Wake up," Levi said, giving Peter a light kick in the ribs. He grunted and opened his eyes, looking up at her groggily.

"Huh?"

"We fell asleep out here," said Levi, trying not to blush and doing a terrible job of it. "We'd better get back to the settlement."

Peter sighed and stood, brushing sand off his clothes and face. "Yeah- I'm supervising that fighting thing this morning."

"What thing?"

"Training, basically. Swords and bows and stuff." He rubbed the gunk out of his eyes, lifting a few inches off the sand as he did so. "Hurry up, Ly- Levi, let's go." Then he vanished.

Levi shoved her crazy dream to far away corner of her mind for later perusal, then took off after Peter and trying to forget that in her dream she'd used a bow.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Levi flew slowly towards the settlement, not really wanting to see the fairies, but even more so wanting to avoid Peter. That dream... even if she didn't want to think about it, it pushed itself to the forefront of her mind and demanded to be examined.

It was probably a memory, from when she'd been Lyris. Even though Levi still wasn't sure she believed it all, almost couldn't believe, she couldn't hide from the evidence.

Peter had been Piotr. He looked a little older, which didn't make any sense. Because unlike her, this wasn't some repeat life. He hadn't died, while she-or Lyris-obviously had at some point. Levi had the baby pictures to prove it- she wasn't a hold-over like Piotr. Peter.

And she had been Lyris, a girl who loved music and dancing and her bow and Piotr. Who wanted desperately to be able to really fly, not just drift along at the wind's whim. Who was curious about her world.

Levi and Lyris were the same person, as far as personality went. One and the same. They were the same on the outside, too- down to the very last hair.

Levi wondered how much more than her Peter remembered. More than her, certainly. He had never left, and he wasn't fishing for memories through a thousand years of being dead.

Levi shivered. She didn't want to think about it anymore; she sped up and flew as fast as she knew how to the Lost settlement.

She needed to talk to someone. And she knew almost no one- wait. A smile flickered across her face, and she knew exactly where to go.

But they weren't there.

"Where's Mad and Knuckles?" Levi asked, looking at the giant shell in disappointment. The five teenagers inside-all girls Levi had never seen before-gave her a look that suggested she was a complete idiot.

"On the cliff, training," said the eldest, a brunette with freckles and a heavy German accent. "That way." She gestured with the shirt in her hand.

"Thanks."

It only took five minutes to find where the missing teens had gone- it was a cliff about a half a mile from the giant cypress grove. The roar of the surf crashing on the cliffs over a hundred feet below filled Levi's ears. The cliff was bare of vegetation, save for the short, thick grass.

About a hundred and fifty people were there, all looking to be between twelve and eighteen years of age. Some were doing what Levi could only call sparring, beating each other up. Some were practicing with swords. And some were practicing with bow and arrows, their targets a long row of dirt piles.

Peter was showing one of the boys how to hold his sword properly. For a moment he looked far older, comparable to an old army veteran who patiently teaches cadets knowing he's giving them a way to hasten their own deaths. But the illusion fled after a moment and it was just Peter, giving the sword a dramatic twirl before handing it back to the other boy. 

Levi landed and wound her way through the crowd-mostly boys, a few girls here and there-to Peter. He was wandering through the group using swords, adjusting their grips or giving pointers.

"Peter! Have you seen Mad and Knuckles?"

Peter looked up sharply, then grinned easily. "Hello, Levity. Mad's over there," he gestured at the makeshift archery range, "Knuckles is sparring with someone."

"Thanks." She ignored his profaning her name-she almost giggled-and headed towards the cluster of archers.

And sure enough, there was Mad, looking both highly attractive and absolutely ludicrous. Leather leggings, a purple hat, a yellow poet shirt, and reddish boots. He seriously needs to get a color consultant, Levi decided.

Mad was listening to an older boy explain how to properly hold the bow. He looked rather intent, brows furrowed. He noticed Levi and instantly the expression fled, replaced by a friendly smile.

"Levi! I wondered if you were here. Any good with a bow?"

She almost told him she could shoot a target blindfolded. She bit her lip and instead told him, "I was good at it once." Some faraway part of her subconscious told her to quit trying to ignore her new memories, but she ignored that too.

"Here, then," said the boy who had been instructing Mad. He tossed a bow and quiver full of arrows at Levi, who caught them easily. "Why don't you demonstrate for Mad here while I go help someone else." The boy headed off down the line.

Levi sighed and slung the quiver over her back. "Come on, Mad." She gestured for him to follow her. He did so and they made their way towards the last target, which didn't have anyone shooting at it due to the fact that it was extremely close to the cliff edge and water came splashing up every so often. Also there was the increased wind factor.

"I'll do a few shots, and then you try," said Levi. "Just watch and pay attention."

Mad nodded, the studious look creeping back onto his dark face.

Levi nocked an arrow and aimed it at the target, not even really thinking about it. She had never held a bow in her life, but it was as natural as breathing. 

  
  
  
  


"I'm better at it than you, so nhah!" She stuck her tongue out, though her eyes were dancing mischievously.

"Don't do that unless you intend to use it," he replied, grinning impishly as he took the bow from her. She flushed, then grinned.

"But I do intend to. Just not in front of the whole village."

"And why not?"

"Well fine."

  
  
  
  


She jumped and looked around her, heart pounding wildly. What happened?

Then Levi took a deep breath and focused herself to pay attention. But try as she might, Levi didn't know anything about shooting a bow and arrow.

But Lyris did.

She took a deep breath, steadied her nerves, forced herself not to have a conniptions fit, and just let go. The memories and long-dead abilities surfaced, and it seemed that time had blinked and this was just another practice. Afterwards she would go back to the village and see if Phineas would let her into the scouting party, although he probably wouldn't.

She released the bowstring, the arrow went sailing, and struck the dirt-pile dead center.

Levi let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She hadn't lost herself in those memories, she'd just... used them. Lyris wasn't another person, Levi vaguely realized. Lyris and Levi are one and the same, and these were her memories and abilities and knowledge, not that of some ancient doppleganger. She was just as much Lyris as she was Levi.

The realization almost took her breath away.

"That was great, Levi!" Mad crowed. "What do you mean, used to be good? You're bloody well amazing."

Levi turned sharply, forcing herself to pay attention to the here and now. Epiphanies would have wait another half an hour.

"You stand here, Mad, and I'll help you through it," she said suddenly, indicating where he should stand with her foot. Suddenly enthusiastic, Mad obeyed, grabbing his own bow and one of his arrows.

Levi corrected his stance, talked him through how to hold the bow and fire it, helped him aim. Mad released the arrow. It bounced off the target.

"You didn't pull back all the way. Try it again, and aim a little higher."

This time the arrow struck true, even if it wasn't dead-center like Levi's. Mad looked highly proud of himself.

"Keep doing it until you're comfortable with it, then we'll try something different," said Levi, mildly annoyed with herself with getting so comfortable with her odd past so quickly.

Mad kept at it in silence or a few minutes. Then, as he was fishing another arrow from his quiver, he asked, "What brings you out here? You don't have to be here; no one gets sent out to battles or anything until they've been here at least a year."

Levi bit her lip. "I needed to talk to someone, and I figured it might as well be you."

"Why?"

"Well, I could talk to Knuckles but she's too rambunctious, and Peter- he's too close to the problem. And I don't know anyone else, besides you."

"So what do you need to talk about? I'll listen, promise, even if I do have to keep practicing." His eyes were focused on the target with such intensity that Levi almost thought he'd burn a hole in it, but his voice was mild and unassuming, besides being so wonderfully Arabic.

"Do you believe in reincarnation?" Levi blurted. Mad, who had been about to grab another arrow, stopped short and looked up at her.

"Not really."

"Well, I'm a reincarnated warrior girl who lived in Never-Land before the Fae came," she said quickly, afraid Mad would start laughing at her. "And what's worse, is that apparently I was Peter's girlfriend."

Mad gave her a look that suggested she was completely off her rocker. But he saw the sincerity in her face and softened slightly.

"That's the oddest story I've heard yet," he said. "Maybe you'd better explain everything."

So while Mad practiced his archery, Levi told her story, beginning with the afternoon before and telling him her memories of being Lyris inasmuch as she remembered. Images and emotions were still filtering in slowly, like a slight trickle of water from a long-dry spring. She couldn't remember the end of it yet, but for vague impressions and feelings.

By the time Mad ran out of arrows, Levi had run out of words. They sat on the grass together in silence, both digesting what Levi had just said. It was all new to Mad, but Levi was trying to decide what she believed. What to do. Why she felt so irresistibly drawn to Peter, even though it was rather obvious. But there was something beyond all that, some impression of words left unsaid, things left undone. But as to what, she didn't know, and it was frustrating.

"Well," said Mad, taking a deep breath, "like I said, that's the strangest story I've ever heard. I don't know if I believe you."

Levi smiled bitterly. "I don't know if I believe me either."

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Peter watched the pair talking from the corner of his eye. Outwardly he was watching the teens with swords and making sure no one got impaled, but really he was wondering what Levi was up to. Why she was talking with Mad, and what about.

He was also wondering what had happened to Tinker Bell. He hadn't seen her since she flew away the day before after Levi's various insinuations about Tink's knowledge of what had happened.

And along with all that, he was wondering if Janus was still around. He probably was, that old eel had been around since before time itself began. Or so it seemed, sometimes. Janus might know why the Fae had changed him- why they'd stolen his memory and reversed the aging. He'd aged at least five or six years in the time between the Fae arriving and Lyris leaving; he wondered why he'd been turned back. He had rather liked being tall.

Peter shook his head, banishing such thoughts, and forced himself to focus on the sword practice. It was more important to keep everyone safe during training than to speculate about the collective motivations of the Fae.

Even so, he wondered....

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


It was dusk now. The training had ended only two hours before, and Levi had wandered off, not really knowing where she was going. She flew aimlessly, thoughts a tangle of questions.

What am I going to do? This is just nuts. Listen to me- four days ago I was living in suburbia, bored out of my mind, and now I'm living in a fairy-tale and I can fly and all I can think about is what to do about these memory things. I ought to be thinking about how to kill pirates- there's only one day left.

Levi landed, and suddenly realized where she was. A rocky beach, near the lagoon where the mer-folk lived. A cliff rose out of the water some one hundred yards away, and a cave had been hollowed out of it.

"It hasn't changed at all," she murmured, heading towards the cave and carefully picking her way through the rocks. They were a little smoother and rounder from the tides, but they still had unexpected sharp edges.

She didn't bother looking for a torch. She just walked in, feeling her way along. She'd done this hundreds of times before.

The chamber with the lake and the shimmering light, daylight reflected through crystals, was the same as she remembered it. It was as if she'd never left.

Something pale blue was under the water. Levi kneeled on the stone bank and brushed the surface of the water with one hand, sending out ripples. "Janus, hear me," she murmured. "I need your counsel, old friend."

A moment later, up came Janus. The water barely rippled as he emerged, wet and dripping and glistening like a pale blue opal. He hauled himself out of the water onto the stone bank and blinked down at Levi, who didn't quite know what to think.

"I have expected you for some time," he said, his deep voice rumbling in Levi's chest and reverberating off the cavern walls. "It has been a long time, Lyris."

"Actually-" it came out rather higher than normal and Levi cleared her throat before continuing- "actually, I go by Levi now. But- I am Lyris..."

Janus considered her silently, black eyes unreadable. Then the great sea-dragon sighed. "You do not remember all yet, do you?"

Levi shook her head. "No. There are big holes."

"And Piotr? Or should I say, Peter?"

"He remembers everything."

Janus nodded. He was older and wiser, Levi realized, and there was something bothering him. She couldn't decide what, though.

"You go to fight the pirates day after tomorrow." It wasn't a question.

Levi blinked, startled, then nodded. "Yes. I myself aren't supposed to, though."

"Go. You are needed there," Janus commanded. "Certain things will happen that will need you. Certain changes. Watch and listen."

She nodded. "I will."

There was a short silence. Then Janus beckoned her forward with one blunt foreleg. She stood and obeyed.

"You doubt yourself," Janus murmured, so low Levi almost didn't hear. "Your abilities. We cannot have that." He reached up and touched her forehead with one claw.

There was a blinding flash of light...


	8. Lyris's Story Part 2

A/N- this chapter covers a lot of ground, and has rather sketchy details. Certain incidents stick out because those would have been far more memorable to Lyris/Levi than the rest. And also, beware- this chapter gets rather angtsy. It also raises several questions which will be answered in later chapters. Promise. That said, read on, oh noble... erm, reader. :D

  
  
  
  


Lyris's Story

Part Two

They never found the Fae that afternoon- in fact, no one did. It was as if they'd melted into the very reef the island was built upon. 

Eventually the little people began showing themselves, their leaders discussing ways to fix the hole with the leaders of the Ageless (as Lyris and Piotr's people called themselves) and the mer-folk, and the red-skins. It was becoming more urgent- stray souls were filtering into Never-Land. No one really knew what they were, but they were causing havoc and something had to be done to seal up the magic again.

Lyris stared up at the trees, feeling both awed and sad and confused, all the same time. She had never seen anything like this, and while it was beautiful, it was a mark of Time, slipping in.

The leaves were turning, falling to the earth. The entire island had turned gold and crimson as the first autumn in living memory came upon it.

Lyris closed her eyes, feeling the cold wind and falling leaves on her face. It had a bittersweet twinge to it, and something deep within told her that things were changing- her life her wouldn't last.

"Lyris?"

Lyris started and turned. Phineas was standing behind her, face carefully blank. Lyris almost smiled to herself- he looked more like the crazy youth she remembered from her childhood. But years had changed him, even if only on the outside, and Lyris could no longer see her brother in the man that was her leader.

"What?"

"You ceremony starts soon."

Lyris looked up at the sky. The clouds were turning pink- it would be dark within the hour. She gave Phineas a nod. "All right." The pair tromped off through the undergrowth, back towards the village. 

The Elder Council was trying desperately to make it seem as if nothing was amiss- but really, how can you hide a rain of light and all the trees on the island spontaneously bursting into a riot of color? It's an utterly ridiculous idea. But things were Business As Usual- including Lyris's ceremony. It didn't have a name, it was just basically being formally welcomed as a potential Elder-in-training and acknowledging that she was old enough to choose a mate. She didn't know if she really would, but it was Open Season on her after tonight.

They had already started building up the fire in the Center. By dark it would be a roaring bonfire, reaching up as if it longed to join the stars. Everyone would sit in a big semicircle around it, and then she and Phineas and her mother, Amity, would stand before it. The ceremony was always different, and Lyris half-hoped hers wouldn't be a flop.

"Lyris! There you are, child- well, not really," Amity cried, approaching her daughter with brush in hand. Amity looked to be only twenty-six, and Lyris was in all respects a fifteen-year-old girl. The slowed aging didn't take affect until the fifteenth year, after that they might live to be three hundred years old and never age beyond thirty.

"Nervous, love?" asked Amity, herding her only daughter to a log and sitting her down on it, then running the brush through Lyris's waist-length dark brown hair. It was tangled and frizzy from a day of running about looking for glow-balls.

"I suppose," Lyris mumbled, enduring her mother's impromptu grooming session. "I can manage on my own, you know. I've lived in my own hut since I was eleven."

"I know, but humor me." Amity set down the brush and moved so she could see Lyris's face. "Will you be choosing tonight?" she asked, her jewel-blue eyes-exactly like Lyris's-glittering mischievously.

"Mother! I don't know," Lyris cried, rather scandalized. "I'll know when I get there, all right?"

"I remember my ceremony- I chose your father that night." The impish glint faded, replaced by vague sadness. Ossian had Faded nearly two years before, and Lyris had been rather estranged from her family ever since.

"Where do we go after we Fade?" asked Lyris suddenly. She had never heard anyone explain it, and suddenly wanted to know.

Amity looked confused by the question. "What ever do you mean, Lyris? I thought you knew- we go Beyond. We get too mentally translucent after a while, and the body follows suit."

Lyris shuddered, thinking about the Fade- thinking about what Phineas had said to the other Elders a few night before, that they would Fade faster.

The Fading started slowly- they were distracted easily, started forgetting things. They went pale, slowly, oh so slowly. People got thinner, became translucent. Literally. She remembered seeing through her father's hand and being scared. Any stray wind carried them away, unlike the rest, who almost commanded the breeze.

And then one day, they simply wouldn't be there anymore. They just... melted away.

"Never mind the future, you've a present to worry about," said Amity gently, breaking Lyris from her sudden reverie. "Go wash and be back quick- we'll be starting soon."

  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


The flames roared, rushing upward, sending sparks upward like dying fireflies. The faces of all those gathered around it were half in shadow, half in brilliant orange light, the contrasts sharp and jarring.

Lyris searched the assembled, mentally ticking off names. The Elders, all in the back. The littlest children and their mothers nearest, but far enough away so as not to risk burning any curious fingers. Everyone else sandwiched in between. All eyes on her.

Everyone was so serious and somber- wait. Not everyone. Lyris almost started giggling from mixed mirth and tension- Piotr was off to one side, making goofy faces, hazel eyes dancing in the firelight.

Once he'd caught her attention, Piotr let off and gave her a broad grin. Don't worry about it, was all over his face. She gave him a grateful look.

"Ready?" asked Phineas, resting one large hand on her shoulder. Lyris looked up at him and gave a slight, tremulous nod. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, then stepped before the flames. Instantly silence descended on the assembled, even the smallest child recognizing that something significant was happening.

"Tonight," Phineas started slowly, unconsciously deepening his voice to make it sound more authoritative, "we loose a child. But in doing so, we gain a sister."

Lyris sort of fazed out at that point. She stared at the fire until her eyes burned. Then her mother's hand was on her arm, guiding her into the center of the semicircle to stand beside Phineas.

"Lyris, daughter of Amity, will you leave you childhood behind and join us?"

Lyris nodded numbly. "I will, Elder."

"Will you defend your people, as a blood daughter?"

"I will, Elder."

"Then we, the Elder Council, remove your childhood from you and present you as a woman." Phineas removed the thick leather bracelet from Lyris's left wrist, and for a moment she felt rather vulnerable without it. She'd worn that thing as far back as she could remember. Then Phineas replaced it with another bracelet, this one made of the hard-to-obtain steel, inset with obsidian and opal. It had markings on it that made Lyris think of the mer-folk.

"I thank you, Elder," she murmured, running her fingers over the cool surface.

"You are of age now, Lyris, and as traditional dictates, I ask you now- would you choose a mate tonight?"

She knew she could simply say "no" and Phineas would wrap up the ceremony, then start the feast, and no one would think askance of her. But she suddenly thought- would she ever get a chance to chose, before they had to leave this place? Who knew what traditions the people of the Dark Lands held?

Besides, wasn't this what she wanted?

"Lyris?"

Lyris took a deep, fortifying breath. "Yes, Elder."

It was a rather stupid question to ask who-everyone knew who it would be-but ask Phineas did. "Name him."

"Piotr, son of Leander."

"Come forth."

Piotr, looking to be somewhere between shocked and smug, stood and came towards the fire. He stood before Phineas, and for a moment Lyris swore he looked terrified of her brother. It was all she could do to keep from giggling hysterically.

"Would you, Piotr, be joined with this woman?"

It felt weird to be referred to as a 'woman,' Lyris thought absently. She'd always been a girl. But now, it seems, she was all grown up. She almost felt sad.

Piotr hesitated, and Lyris could almost see him saying "no." But then he nodded. "Yes, Elder."

Lyris didn't know whether to be relieved or nervous.

"Stand before me."

Amity pushed Lyris forward; she almost stumbled, but caught herself just in time. Phineas produced a rough white strip of cloth from somewhere in his tunic.

"Clasp hands."

Rather disbelievingly, Lyris and Piotr obeyed. Their eyes met. Piotr was looking like he wanted to laugh, and Lyris knew that if he did she'd start laughing and there would be no end to it. So she gave him mock-stern look, silently saying, If you laugh, I'll laugh, and the rest of this will be absolutely bungled.

Piotr swallowed his oncoming giggles enough to fake a somber appearance, although his mouth was twitching with barely contained mirth.

Phineas looked just as nervous as the two teens standing before him- he'd only been leader of the Elder Council for a few months, and had never done this before. But he'd been through one on the other end and was able to summon the correct phrases and actions.

He wrapped the pair's clasped hands with the cloth, then presented them with a dramatic gesture (which was all silent add-lib, he loved melodramatics) to the crowd. "Before you tonight, I present this pair, now joined together until they both Fade to the Beyond. May they be quite happy with each other."

Then the serious atmosphere shattered with cheers. Piotr grinned, and Lyris laughed. That wasn't so bad, was it.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


After that, it seemed that Time truly was seeping through the cracks. The trees lost their leaves, and everything went cold. Snow fell. No one died, but they suffered greatly during that winter. The first and last that Never-Land ever lived through.

They started leaving just as spring was returning.

First the families with small children, flying off into the sky with only a few packs of clothing with them. Then, slowly, hesitantly, tearfully, the others began leaving.

Amity, Eros, Miriel- all of them. Soon Phineas was the only Elder left, and without the Council he could call no more. He organized the exodus as best he could, but he had so much else to do.

Lyris was constantly busy- hunting fairies, helping the others pack, foraging, guarding against the wraiths that had infested the cove. Eventually they built crude boats and took to the water, but they haunted the shores still.

The only two things that kept Lyris going were Janus and Piotr. Every day she would pay tribute to the sunrise, then speak with Janus. He put her fears to rest, assured her. Then she went about her day.

And every night, she would go back to the hut and sometimes stay up late just talking with Piotr in their hammock. Sometimes they did... other things, and Lyris blushed whenever she thought about it.

Everyone was changing during those months- aging. Phineas suddenly had lines and gray hairs. Piotr shot upwards almost a foot, and went from the appearance of a sixteen-year-old to twenty in under two months. Lyris didn't get any taller, but she changed too- she refused to look at her reflection in any respect, but she knew it was happening.

It was night. She was in the hammock in their hut, absently sharpening an arrowhead. Piotr was next to her, staring at the ceiling.

"Gareth and Xander are leaving at dawn."

Lyris jumped- it had been silent for almost half an hour. Then she swallowed. "Sure?"

"They have everything packed."

Lyris nodded. "We'll be the last, then, besides Phineas."

Piotr sat up, making the hammock rock. "Phineas says he's going to get his things together and leave by midday. I plan on getting our things ready, so we can go with him."

Something in Lyris froze at his words. As much as she had once said she wanted to leave, to explore, she didn't want to go anymore. She wanted everything fixed. She wanted...

"All right," Lyris whispered. "By midday." 

Piotr watched her silently, hazel eyes unreadable. Over the past weeks he'd been losing his good humor, becoming more somber. Something was bothering him, but he wouldn't say anything about it. He reached over and grasped her hand.

"You know what will happen if we stay," he murmured. "We'll have Faded long before those fairy idiots fix this. Even if we do age in the Dark Lands, we'll be alive." He laid down again. Suddenly exhausted-emotionally, as well as physically-Lyris did the same, burrowing her face in his side.

"I'm scared," she murmured, voice muffled slightly. "I said I wanted to go somewhere, but now..."

"I'm scared, too." But he said nothing more.

Lyris almost said something, almost told him, but something kept her from it. If they made it past the Boundary safely tomorrow, she would tell all then. Not before.

She fell asleep that way, curled up in Piotr's warm embrace.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Xander and Gareth left at dawn, as promised.

As soon as they vanished from sight the three remaining went into action, gathering what they would need and nothing more. They were quickly done.

"There's a stiff wind higher up," said Phineas, slipping his rucksack over his shoulders. Lyris didn't like looking at him too long- he looked to be thirty-five, not the twenty-something youth he'd been only months before. At least, months as her people measured them.

"How long should it take to get there?" asked Lyris, grabbing her own rucksack. Phineas shrugged.

"A few hours, maybe. I'm not sure."

"I'm not going." 

Chills ran down Lyris's spine and made every nerve-ending tingle madly. She turned slowly.

Piotr was standing off to one side, arms folded, eyes downcast. He was standing unnaturally straight.

"What do you mean?" Lyris asked rather shrilly. "We have to go, you know that."

Piotr looked up, eyes carefully blank. "There's something wrong here, something I have to figure out. I'll be okay."

"Piotr, this place is falling apart," Lyris said desperately. "You're not as immortal as you seem to think."

Something like regret flashed across Piotr's face. "I can't explain it, Lyris- I'll follow you as soon as I can, I promise. But..."

"I understand, Piotr," said Phineas. "There is something wrong here. But I have a responsibility to my people. And you..."

"You can't just stay," said Lyris. "And you can't just egg him on, Phineas!"

Phineas bit his lip and retreated into the trees. Lyris whirled on Piotr, eyes flashing.

"Are you mad, Piotr?! You're going to die. You're aging too fast, forget Fading- you'll wither away like a dry reed."

Piotr grabbed her by the upper arms, suddenly intense. "I'm not talking about forever here," he said roughly. "I'm not just leaving you, all right? Get a grip."

Lyris blinked, eyes tearing up. "You can't..." she whispered, trying not cry.

"This is something I have to do, Lyris. Maybe I can fix it and we can all come home. I can't..." he shook his head, and Lyris vaguely realized he was just as torn up as she was. "I can't say exactly what it is. It's like something tickling my mind... I have to figure it out."

"Promise you'll come and find me?"

Piotr suddenly pulled her close, wrapping her in his arms so tightly she almost couldn't breathe. But she didn't care.

"I'll follow you to the ends of the earth," he whispered into her hair. "Past the end of forever, if I have to, to find you."

"And if you can't?"

He didn't answer.

Levi pulled back just enough to look up at him. "I'll come back. If you don't find me, I'll come back. Even if those dratted Fae take over."

"Lyris-"

"Just be careful, okay?" Lyris swallowed hard to keep from crying. Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. "Things are messed up enough already."

Piotr nodded. Lyris knew he was just as screwed up inside as she was- he'd never been good at expressing any emotions beyond amusement, but it was there. But also there was sincerity- and that was enough to give Lyris hope- that he really would be all right, that he'd come for her, that if she went looking he'd be there to be found.

"I'll go up with you," he said softly. "See you off."

Lyris nodded, suddenly too choked up to speak.

"Just... don't turn back."

They found Phineas, then trudged up towards the mountains tramping down the island's spine. They could have taken off anywhere, but the winds higher up were stronger and would get them going faster. Besides, the walk was an excuse to spend that much longer in their home.

They stopped when they reached the tree line. Lyris adjusted her rucksack, saw Phineas doing the same. 

"See you soon?" Lyris half said, half asked. Piotr nodded. They stood there for a moment, just staring at each other, as if emblazoning the other's features across their memory.

The pair hugged tightly, as if unwilling to let go, ever.

"I love you, Lyris- don't ever forget that," Piotr whispered in her hair.

Lyris almost cracked, almost told him, just to get him to come. And she knew if she said anything, he'd cave and fly away.

But something stopped her.

And suddenly she knew, as assuredly as if Janus himself had yelled it in her ear, that Piotr was needed here. Something depended on his staying. As if he were an anchor, keeping the island in the sky from floating away.

"I know. Don't forget me," Lyris whispered.

They kissed one last time, and then Lyris stepped away, rubbing her eyes to keep the tears at bay. With one last regretful glance, she rose into the air and flew away. Piotr watched her go, eyes misty.

"I hope you know what you're doing," said Phineas gruffly. "Be glad she loves you so much, or I'd beat you to a bloody pulp right now." Then he followed his sister and vanished into the clouds.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Lyris didn't know how long it took them to cross the Boundary. She only knew that once they got past the clouds, higher than she'd ever gone, they crashed into... something. It was like flying in a hurricane. 

Eventually it stopped and they were drifting over a night landscape, the stars at their backs, the dark earth beneath. There was a large city, lit by torches.

They landed a few miles from the outskirts, in some unsuspecting farmer's field. And then Lyris cried on her brother's shoulder.

"I shouldn't have left him there. I should have told him..."

Phineas didn't say anything, just let her cry. But certain things she said tickled at his thoughts, and left him wondering.

At sunrise they started walking for the city. Lyris didn't play her song, didn't even acknowledge the birds. All she could think about was the strange new world they were venturing into, and the fact that Piotr would in all likelihood never even know about his child, let alone meet them.

Lyris died seven months later, only a week after her child's birth. She never knew what happened to the little girl, the child she named Autumn.

And she never knew why Piotr hadn't come.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

  
  


When Levi came to, she curled up in a ball on the stone floor of the cavern, sobbing. It had been so much more intense than the dream- she had been actually relieving it, all in the space of about fifteen seconds. The emotions had practically caught her in a headlock.

"Levi, stand up."

Levi swallowed her tears and stood shakily, meeting Janus's gaze. The dragon was looking at her with an odd mixture of sympathy and sternness. "I am sorry I had to do that, but we are swiftly running out of time. I would have preferred for you to remember in your own time, but, what with the current circumstances..." He shook his massive blunt head. "You realize now that there is no Levi, no Lyris, only you, don't you?"

Levi nodded numbly. I just want to sleep... if I even see Piotr- Peter, I'm going to either blush like mad or start crying like an idiot.

"Is there anything you wish to know?"

Levi scrubbed the last tears off her face and nodded. "Why isn't Peter as old as he was? What happened?"

Janus shook his head. "That is something that you must speak to Peter about. His fairy companion, as well- if you can find her," he added grimly.

"Tink's been here since the beginning," said Levi dully. "No wonder she flipped when I suggested she knew things."

"The Fae are notorious for their treachery," said Janus mildly. "But it is essential that you find some equilibrium."

Levi gave him a confused look. Janus sighed.

"Never-Land is only as stable as its inhabitants, Levi. It exists as much inside us all as it does around us. When you arrived here, disrupting everything, doubt has been gnawing apart the Fae, as well as Peter. And Peter is the anchor, which quadruples the problem. Getting rid of those wraiths-you call them pirates-might help, but certain things need to happen or Never-Land will vanish."

Levi didn't know what to think about that. The thought of her home disappearing into the mists made her physically ill. Whatever happened, she had to prevent that.

"You need to speak with Peter."

Levi looked up sharply. "I can't!" she blurted. "He's changed far too much, and me... I'm still caught between then and now. I don't know what I feel, how to react."

"It must be done," said Janus patiently. Levi got the feeling he was swiftly running out of patience, by the vague flash of his black eyes.

"I'll try," said Levi dully. "But no promises, all right?"

Janus looked like he was going to make a useless comment, but he held his tongue and nodded. "That is all we can hope for, right now."

"I'd better go," said Levi suddenly. "It's late, and I have a lot of practice to do tomorrow. I've gotten rather rusty on my sword skills."

Janus smiled. "Yes, you do that. May we meet again, my young friend."

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Levi spent another sleepless night, but rather than retreat to the dormitory she went to the topmost platform of the settlement- it was only fifteen feet across, and there were no branches clouding the view of the sky.

She hadn't seen a sky-scape in that way before. Not just seeing the billions upon billions of stars, stretching out beyond infinity- but to know what was past it, to have been beyond the sky and come back again.

Levi was up all night, acclimating herself to the new reality. That she was, in fact, someone who had died in ancient Greece and been reborn in modern-day America. Of course, who knew what year it was now- it was probably twenty-thirty-four, or some other equally ludicrous date. Time didn't exist here anymore in any form, beyond days and memory. It was like living the same day over and over.

She suddenly remembered the bittersweet sight of Never-Land in autumn. It was painfully beautiful to someone who had never known autumn before, but it was a herald of doom- of Time.

And then, Levi suddenly felt terribly depressed. That was her daughter's name, Autumn.

Of course, Autumn had grown up and died before Levi-the present version-had even thought of existing. Unless she had somehow been brought here, but to hope that was silly. Besides, even if she was still here, how could she find her?

Levi suddenly felt like crying, and shoved every thought of her past family out of her mind, focusing her entire existence on the stars.

The stars that had brought the Fae.

Levi stood sharply, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the cold. It was close to midnight. She would never be able to fall sleep, and she needed something to do before she went mad from memories.

So Levi found a bow and arrows somewhere and spent the rest of the night practicing archery.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


The sun was coming up.

A teenage girl was sitting in the crags of the Never-Land mountains, holding a slender silver lute. As the first rays of sunlight pierced the darkness, she put the instrument to her lips and began to play.

It was a song of heartache and loss, of pain and turmoil, of love lost to never be regained, of a broken heart. And yet, ultimately, of hope.

The music soared, and by some strange trick of the magic that was Never-Land it filtered down to the entire island.

The redskins turned their faces upward, confused, and felt their hearts buoyed by the sound.

The fairies turned to ice inside, for they knew that sound, and knew what it meant, who played it.

The mer-folk listened intently, each remembering a time that went with the music. One merman scribbled down the notes and forever after tried to reproduce it, but never could.

The pirates yelled and shrieked, the sound grating on their ears, slicing through them like a thousand razors.

And the Lost?

Most were still asleep, but those awake smiled to each other.

And Peter- he grinned for a moment, almost his old self, and decided it was going to be a very good day.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Levi returned to the settlement immediately after she finished her song, wired with adrenaline. She had a specific mission, and would not be gainsaid. 

No one recognized this wild woman, all shrank back from her. Long, tangled dark hair; of normal height but entirely too muscular; eyes that flashed like blue fire and ice. She carried herself like an Amazon- ready for battle, and confident that the enemy would die from just the fright of seeing her.

Peter was on the main level, playfully discussing mer-folk with a boy who looked to be about eleven. But appearances could be deceiving, especially here.

"Peter."

Peter looked up, did a double take. For a moment time blinked and it was Lyris standing before him. But it faded away and it was Levi, looking extremely determined.

"What is it?"

"I need to speak with you."

Peter nodded. "See you later, Slightly," he said absently. Then he and Levi took to the air, as if of one mind.

They went to the top platform, which was empty. The instant they landed Peter gave Levi a level stare.

"So talk."

"I'm coming with you, to the battle."

"Not on your life!" Peter blurted before he had really processed her words. "Levi-"

"Last time I did what you told me to, it destroyed three lives," said Levi, trying to be frosty and just coming across as hurt. "I won't be the one to stay behind, and I'm not going to fold like I did before. So deal with it."

Uh-oh. Lyris is hacked off- just do what she says and nobody dies, Peter thought. She hasn't been this pissed since Phineas put fish guts in her hut.

"You haven't used a weapon for what, three thousand years? You'll get killed."

This time Levi's anger was real. "Been there, done that. It'll be nothing new. And I am more than proficient with a bow- more so than you, in fact."

"You can't kill a pirate with a bow!"

"The I'll use a sword."

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Peter knew it was completely daft, but he was suddenly enjoying arguing with her.

"I was informing you of a decision, not asking your permission."

"You can't have it in any case, and I'll tie you up myself," Peter retorted.

Levi came so close their noses were practically touching. "Go ahead and try," she said. "You'll regret it, though."

"Will I?" asked Peter, amusement flickering in his hazel eyes. Levi tried not to think about the last time he'd looked at her like that.

"You bet-"

Had this been another time, Peter's next move would have been completely fine, even expected. But now- well, neither know what to think.

Levi almost jumped back, but kissing Peter seemed to be the most natural thing in the world... just right, somehow. Memories flooded her mind unbidden, memories that once upon a time had been all she had in the world. 

Then, pulling herself back into the present, Levi jerked herself backwards. "You're trying to distract me. It's not working."

Peter looked at her with intense curiosity. "Why are you so worked up about going out to fight, Lyris?" he said, barely noticing as the once-familiar name fell from his lips. "You never used to want to put yourself in the way of danger, especially against the wraiths."

Levi closed her eyes and sighed from her toes. "Because it needs to be done, and I'm not going to watch my friends die while I, who knows how these monsters operate, stand by the wayside." She opened her eyes and looked up at Peter. He wasn't as tall as he should have been, but he was still a solid four inches taller than her. Her eyes were misty. "I've changed, Peter- we both have. Things aren't the same, they never will be."

Peter nodded slowly, watching Levi with new understanding in his eyes. This was something she needed to do; her own personal exorcism of the ancient ghosts in her soul. "All right," he said softly. Levi saw the uncertainty reflected in his clear hazel eyes. No one else could have detected it, but she could.

"Thank you," Levi murmured. Suddenly uncomfortable, she flew away as fast as she could. The tears that dripped down her face weren't just from the wind.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  


Peter clenched his hand into a fist, staring blankly at the sky. Tink was still missing, and he still didn't know what to do about what's-her-name. He didn't know what to call her, Levi or Lyris.

He knew she could look after herself- he had no doubt of that. She might not have been as skilled with the sword as with the bow, but she could hold her own. At least against the pirates, anyway- those undead wraiths that only just managed to keep themselves organized. If she ever went up against Captain Hook she'd be annihilated, but she wasn't, just the regular pirates.

But Levi didn't know their true fury, Peter thought mutinously. She hadn't watched them murder a hundred Lost prisoners. She hadn't watched her friends die and been forced to stand by the wayside.

"What's she thinking?" Peter burst out, eyes flashing. "She'll be turned into a bloody stain on the ground."

He wanted nothing more than to protect her, the way he hadn't been able to before. Shelter her from her fate, as it were. He knew he couldn't, and it made him feel helpless, useless.

"What happened to her? Why is she so determined to get herself killed?" Peter murmured to himself. "Why?"

"You don't know her story, Pan- not all of it."

Peter turned sharply, startled. Mad was standing behind him, dark eyes thoughtful.

"What ever do you mean?" asked Peter sharply. "I don't think you're any more of an authority than me, Omar."

Mad's thoughtfulness turned to ire in an instant. "Levi was forced from her home, both then and now, by forces she could not control. She has been rejected by those she loves. Her entire life has been destroyed, in both times, and you wonder why she wants revenge on one of the demons controlling her fate? I thought you were smarter than that."

"I don't think I understand," Peter replied, voice low. He was starting to get irritated at the Arabian teenager.

Mad stepped closer, voice low and angry. "Levi is in search of absolution. And if killing a few pirates will give her that, then mind your own bloody business and let her!"

Peter didn't answer, just glowered. Mad almost quailed- Peter seemed to change before his eyes from a carefree teenaged boy to an old man, someone who held the very nature of darkness within themselves, someone who had seen the birth of Time itself and lived through all the misery of the universe. And then it was Peter again, an angry boy who didn't understand why the girl he cared for more than anyone else on earth would want to go into battle.

"Talk to her, Peter," said Mad softly, shaking his head. "She needs that, and so do you."

Peter thought he saw something like regret in Mad's eyes. He got the feeling that Mad was giving up something enormous, and it only took a moment more to realize that while Mad might hope for something beyond Levi's friendship, he cared enough for her to recognize that he wasn't the one she wanted.

Peter nodded slowly, vague understanding mixed with confusion flooding his youthful face. "All right, I'll talk to her."

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Levi clutched the sword hard, her knuckles white and bloodless. She swung it at the post again and again until she felt like her arm was going to fall off, and then she kept going.

She tried to convince herself she was training. What she was really doing was pretending that the post was a really tall fairy. Because really, that was what it all came down to- the Fae weren't satisfied with their realm and decided to invade hers.

And then, without so much as batting an eye, they destroyed her life, her family, her future, her home, and her belief in herself.

She wanted to believe that she could make it better, could turn back the Time that had slipped through her fingers and find herself home again. That the great chasm hadn't suddenly opened between herself and Peter.

She still couldn't call him Piotr.

But he had called her Lyris. She remembered being curled up in clearing somewhere together, watching the deadly stars above... whispering her name in her ear, his breath on her skin...

She bit back a soft cry and swung viciously at the post, leaving a deep slash in the wood. She wouldn't stop until the stupid thing was reduced to naught but splinters.

Then, without consulting her, her hands went limp and the iron-blade sword dropped to the earth at her feet. She sank to the ground, not caring a bit that she was getting mud all over her last clean pair of jeans.

She cried.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


When Peter finally found her, the sun had sunk behind the western horizon and the last vestiges of sunset were fleeing from the swiftly darkening sky. She was alone on the cliff top above Janus's caves, a rather worse for wear post driven in the ground near her, an iron sword beside her. She was asleep, tear-tracks glistening on her sunburnt face.

He kneeled beside her, brushed the tears from her face carefully, so as not to wake her. She had dark circles under her eyes from exhaustion, no small wonder that she'd cried herself to sleep.

"I wonder..." Peter murmured absently. He watched her for a moment longer, then gingerly picked her up.

Levi shuddered in her sleep and clutched the front of his tunic, whimpering softly, brow knitting. She relaxed a moment later, but retained her death-grip on his tunic. Peter sighed and took to the air, leaving the sword where it lie. He could fetch it later, or have one of the younger children grab it.

When he reached the dormitory she was staying in, he tried to leave her in her hammock but the only way to do it would have been to have left the blasted tunic with her, or stayed with her. The last idea was considerably more tempting, but not in a girl's dormitory. Gossip abounded here, especially among the girls- he wasn't that stupid.

So he went instead to his own quarters, tucked up in the root system of the smallest cypress. The sound of the waves only sixty feet below continuously filled the little chamber.

Peter, seeing as he was the leader, had one of only four feather-beds in the entire settlement. Two belonged to members of his council, and the last to a cook who'd managed to squirrel away a bunch of feathers over the years. 

So onto the rather small bed went Levi, and because she had an unbreakable grip on his tunic, so did Peter.

He watched her sleep in silence, absently pushing a lock of her hair off her face. "I never forgot my promise," he whispered. "That I'd find you. Why do you think I flew to the Other World? I knew, deep down, I was looking for someone... but I never found you. Not in time, anyway. And now... you've changed until I hardly know you anymore. I hardly even know myself."

No reaction, beyond a soft, contented murmur. She curled up against him, and Peter automatically wrapped his arms around her. It had been so long, and yet it still came so easily, being with her like this.

"I never stopped loving you," he whispered.

After that he fell silent and just soaked up the moment, not thinking about tomorrow. Eventually he fell asleep.

Tink watched from the corner, her golden aura tinged with green. She was utterly, completely jealous of this usurper, of this girl who knew more than she ought.

And she was absolutely terrified of her.

Tink had been there since it began. She had been in the Circle, she had helped steal Piotr's memory and reverse his age, turn him into Peter Pan. She had been assigned to watch over him, report anything unusual to the Ring. But when Levi had started asking questions, Tink had started hiding.

"Everything is falling apart," Tink muttered to herself. "I won't be made to live amongst those barbarians Outside again. Even if it means destroying the Lost."

Her eyes glowed with maniacal madness.

"Even if."


	10. Chapter 10

A/N- Just so you know, this chapter is a little abbreviated in the battle department- why, you ask? Because I suck at writing fights. I am very good, however, with angst. So be prepared! 

  
  


Chapter 10

  
  
  
  


It was still dark when Levi awoke. At first she thought she was still on the cliff- the sound of ocean waves filled her ears. But then she realized she was curled up in a soft bed with what felt like a hide blanket over her, fur against her face.

Peter was wandering around the small chamber, looking for something. Apparently it was a clean tunic- he was only wearing boots and leggings. Levi blushed and pulled the blanket over her head.

"If you're coming, you'd better get up," said Peter, knowing full well she was awake. "The three armies meet at the cove in a quarter of an hour."

That woke Levi up. She jumped up, suddenly hyper-aware. "Where-"

"They're passing out weapons at the cliff where we did the training," Peter continued. "Tie your hair back with something, don't bother getting cleaned up."

Levi nodded absently. "Meet you there," she said, and vanished through the entry-hole in the floor. Peter didn't pay any attention, he was busy trying to get his tunic on.

It took Levi five minutes to find the dormitory where she'd been staying, three more to make a sloppy braid of her hair, and then she was off and flying again, not caring a bit that she stuck out like a sore thumb. No one else wore jeans and Linkin Part t-shirts, just her.

When she reached the cliff-top, it was as if the entire armory had moved their forge. Armor and weapons were everywhere. She landed near a basket full of swords and looked around in confusion

"You there! I know you!"

Levi turned and saw the tall redhead, Desiree. She was dressed in a chain-mail tunic and a helmet, a sword at her belt. She looked absolutely terrifying.

"What?"

"Don't just stand there, get your helmet and weapons and armor, girl," said Desiree, irritated. "We have only a few minutes!" She tossed a sheathed sword and belt at Levi, who caught it easily and buckled it around her waist. "Where's the other stuff?"

"Chin-mail that way, plate armor that way, helmets that way, other weapons that way," Desiree replied, pointing in each direction in turn. "I'd suggest a chain-mail tunic and light helm."

"Mm."

"Get moving!" Desiree barked. Levi jumped and did as she was told- you don't argue with a female Viking.

It took only a moment to find what she needed, and then it was off to the beach she went. Redskins were assembled there with canoes in the pre-dawn darkness, their tomahawks newly edged with iron. The mer-folk were just beyond the shore, the siren song gone now- low, angry murmurings had replaced them. There were no Fae present- the touch of iron burnt like them like red-hot coal.

The pale light of false dawn was lighting the western horizon when Peter appeared, the last of the Lost with him. 

"Start out to the ships," Peter commanded, no longer a teenage boy- now he was a war veteran, leading his troops into a deadly battle. "Gaius, stay deep- those cannon balls pack a punch, even under water. Seneca, you know the drill. We'll be up in the skies, picking them off." Peter waved broadly, and the Lost all went floating away up into the clowds, Levi included. She hadn't a clue what she was doing, but she was glad she'd snagged some chain-mail and a helmet beforehand.

"Archers! Get 'em in the heart- it won't kill them, but they'll be down for the count at least," Peter hollered through the fog. 

Levi nocked an iron-tipped arrow and dipped below the sparse clouds, aiming carefully at the helmsman of the first ship. She saw twenty or so other archers around, all squinting at their targets, hands rather shaky.

Not her. She was as calm as if she was merely taking a stroll through the woods.

Release!

Watch the arrow, hold breath, see the helmsman fall, grab another, aim and release. Watch, wait, see the strike, do it all over again. 

Hoarse yelling filled the air. The pirates swarmed over the ship's deck, running madly for the cannons, the rigging. Those hit were curled up in agony, but not dead.

The sea began foaming with mer-folk, swimming up to shoot the pirates and punch holes in the ships.

Canoes were coming closer.

"DRAW YOUR SWORDS!"

A green blur rocketed past, sword flashing. Levi put away her bow, drew her own blade, flew as fast as she could towards the ship below.

Screams, clashes of metal, splashes, the boom of cannons, the 'whoosh' of disintegrating wraiths, all meshed into a cacophony that did nothing but confuse. Levi shut off her ears.

Pirate, just ahead, back turned. Run, swing, block, chop of his head, pull the pirate's would-be victim up and move on.

Conscious thought vanished. It was all a whirl of noise and blood in the darkness. The redskins climbed into the ship, their battle-cries both heartening and terrifying.

Duck, roll, jump up, block, kick, chop their head off. Fly into the rigging, picking off the sailors trying to raise sail.

Strange thoughts were spinning through Levi's head at warp speed. We're just kids, what are we doing fighting a war? Eww, yuck, this ship smells nasty. Ow! Die, fiend!

She was too busy to notice the gold fairy.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


"Where is that wench?" Tink muttered, flitting about the carnage without paying attention. All she could think about was ridding herself of the girl with the jewel-bright eyes.

Ah. There she was. High up, slicing the pirates in the rigging into bite-sized pieces. Tinker-Bell almost quailed at the sight of the flashing iron-bladed sword. Almost.

Someone on their last wits doesn't pay attention to anything like odds.

The fairy grabbed an arrow, hefted it up, trying to balance the long shaft and not drop it. Then, grinning like the insane maniac she was, the went full-tilt at Levi.

"LEVI!" Peter yelled.

The next three seconds went as follows:

Levi turned, face stretching into an expression of shocked horror, mingled with fear. The pirate she'd been fighting fled, scrambling down the rigging like a translucent monkey.

Peter flew hard and fast, dodging rigging and pirates and Lost, one thought in his mind- stop Tink. 

Tink flew faster, the iron-tipped arrow aimed right at Levi's heart.

Peter was a blur of speed.

Levi began turning, looking for a way out; she was trapped between rigging and a crazy fairy- there was no way out.

Peter reached Levi at the same instant Tink did. The arrow went straight into his ribs, sinking in deep. Any idiot could see that it was a fatal wound.

Time suddenly came out of its deadlock, sped up.

"Peter! You idiot!" Tink wailed. "Now I'll have to kill both of you!" She gave the arrow a vicious twist.

Levi's hand shot out, caught the fairy in her fist. Squeezed. "You," Levi growled, eyes flashing like molten sapphire. The fairy grinned madly at her, her crazed laughter like wild bells.

Without another word, Levi pressed the iron blade against Tink's bare skin. The laughter turned into a long death-scream.

The lifeless, suddenly dull body fell to the earth. Levi dropped her sword heedlessly and grabbed Peter by the arms- he was starting to waver, to fall.

"Peter, look at me," she pleaded. Peter looked dazed, in shock. He brushed his fingers against his side and they came away dripping with blood. He looked up at Levi blankly.

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" Levi screamed, terrified at the all-consuming emptiness in Peter's eyes. "SOMEONE HELP!"

Four different Lost came instantly. "What-"

"We have to get him out of here," Levi said desperately. "He's bleeding too much, the arrow probably got a lung-"

"Come on." The largest boy of the four grabbed Peter and flew towards shore in the dawn light, Levi beside him. Every instant was an eternity, as Peter's life fell away in drops of red.

They had just touched the sand when it started.

The earth rumbled, shook like a wet dog, came a hoarse, creaking roar; Levi cried out.

"Never-Land..." Peter murmured, drifting farther towards the Dark Border. "Falling down..."

"I'll fetch a doctor," said the boy urgently, then vanished into the sky. Levi held Peter close as the very earth bucked.

"The magic..."

"You'll be okay," Levi said desperately. "Don't die, don't, please-"

The waves roared, crashed, soaked the earth. In an instant the sky clouded over, winds began blowing long and loud, sounding like a widow's wail.

Peter's gaze was blank, unfocused, but fear filled his face. "The hole-" he muttered senselessly. "The anchor..."

Levi gasped.

"Peter is the anchor, which quadruples the problem."

  
  


"He's the anchor! I was right! If he dies, Never-Land goes with him!" Levi said to the howling winds.

The sky was being ripped apart, dying even as Peter was.

"Peter, please, stay with me-"

The air began glowing, the wind howling to the point of deafening.

"Please-"

"The magic is failing..." Peter whispered. "Fix it..."

"I can't!"

And in that instant, everything changed.

The air was glowing blue, bright blue like sapphires held up against the sun. It reverberated with raw power- magic tearing itself apart. She could see the power, feel it.

"Fix it."

"I don't know how!"

Blue. Like Janus's scales. Like Levi's eyes. The color of the wind, that first and last winter.

The color of Time unleashed.

And then she knew what to do, as much as if she'd done it every day of her life. She reached out one hand, somehow caught the power in her fist.

Time. Loose and destructive. When the Fae turned back Peter's life, they trapped it, and now it wanted out. They had caged it, changed Never-Land's nature, and now it would mend things.

You cannot have it yet, Levi whispered. I can give you your due, but you must do one thing for me. Change one thing for me, before I give you back your Place of Truth.

And Time obeyed.

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


-Peter flew hard and fast, dodging rigging and pirates and Lost, one thought in his mind- stop Tink. 

Tink flew faster, the iron-tipped arrow aimed right at Levi's heart.

Peter was a blur of speed.

Levi began turning, looking for a way out; she was trapped between rigging and a crazy fairy- there was no way out.

Desperation grew in Peter's mind.

Tink cackled.

And then-

Levi shrieked in pain, the arrow protruding from her side. Tink laughed louder, eyes wild with madness. Peter swung desperately, at the fairy fell in pieces to the deck below.

"Levi!" He grabbed her as she began to fall, held her tightly and flew for the shore without event thinking about it. Panic fueled him.

Levi didn't know what had happened- just knew that something, something within her, hand shifted. And suddenly here she was, wounded and bleeding and probably dying. She couldn't remember what had happened, but knew she had changed something.

They reached the shore. Peter cradled her gently in his arms, heedless of the blood dripping onto the white sand, staining it red.

"Stay with me," he whispered. "Look at me, Lyris- I won't lose you again."

Levi looked up at him, a vague, almost invisible smile flickering across her pale face. "I'm not going anywhere," she whispered weakly.

But Peter could see her weakening, her life spilling out on the sand...

"Remember when you said-" she took a deep breath, rasping breath, almost coughed- "that if you want to fly faster, you just believe you already are?"

Peter nodded. "I remember," he said thickly.

"Well then... think I'm better," she murmured softly. "And I will be."

"It doesn't work that way."

"Why not?"

"Because..." he took a shaky breath, tried not to cry. "It never did before."

"Piotr knew how to believe," she whispered. "So did Lyris. And so do I."

Peter nodded numbly. "Yeah, he did," he said softly. "But I can't seem to find him."

"Mmm."

She was slipping away so fast, Peter thought bleakly. There was nothing he could do to stop it.

....or was there?

"You'll be okay," said Peter absently, moving so he could see the wound. The arrow shaft was still sticking out, it was in deep and to remove it would only cause more damage. But he had to do something. 

Her breathing sounded rasping, blood was flecking her lips now. She's got a punctured lung. This is it- I can't do anything. My hands are tied. 

All right Peter, Piotr, whoever you are- believe.

And suddenly he did. He knew, for no reason whatsoever, that Levi was going to be perfectly fine, that everything would turn out okay and he had nothing to worry about.

Levi gasped...

  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


It took over a month for Levi to fully recover. Peter never could figure out what had happened that day, but all he knew was one instant Levi was dying and the next he was holding a bloody arrow, the deep wound in Levi's side already clogging.

The pirates were gone- that one attack completely wiped them out. Even Hook. The ships had gone up in flames before the day had ended, and charred wreckage was still washing up on the shore.

There had been deaths- Lost and redskins and mer-folk. Each group sent off their dead in their own way, but they all met on the beach for a memorial. Fires were lit on the beach, and wooden swords were burned in memory of the fallen.

But slowly, ever so slowly, Never-Land became normal again. More than normal- it was whole.

No one knew what had happened to the Fae. They vanished into the sky the very day of the Great Battle. A great plague went with them, and the Place of Truth began to recover....


	11. Chapter 11

  
  


Chapter 11

  
  


Warm, yellow sunlight spilled over the edge of the earth, poured through the single window and onto the face of a pale, drawn teenage girl. She winced and opened her eyes at the visual onslaught.

"Huh? What-" She sat up, and pressed the heel of her hand against her side, hissing softly in pain. "My kingdom for a Motrin," she muttered, lifting the hem of her shirt to examine the crude bandages over the arrow-wound. She was surprised she was even alive- she had been completely prepared to meet her end. She'd done it before; death wasn't that impressive once you've already experienced it.

"You're sitting up. That's good."

Levi looked up. Peter had flown in through the window and was picking twigs out of his hair. She was in his chamber, where she'd awoken that morning... how long ago was it?

"You've been in and out of senselessness for over a month," Peter explained, seeing the confusion in her eyes. "You're actually lucid for once- that's great."

Levi nodded absently. "Did we win?"

Peter smiled grimly and nodded. "The pirates are gone for good."

"And Tink?"

The smile vanished, replaced by a dark scowl. "She'd dead," he said harshly. "Killed her myself, in fact."

"She tried to kill me." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, she did."

Levi chewed on her lip. "How many died in the battle?"

"About fifty of ours- the same for the redskins and mer-folk."

Levi nodded again, absently wondering what had happened to her new friends; if they had lived through the battle to rid their world of the wraiths known as pirates.

"You scared me, Lyris- we almost lost you more times than I care to mention," said Peter gently, sitting in the chair that had somehow ended up there in between Levi leaving for the battle and waking from her sort-of coma.

"Really?" Levi asked dully.

Peter watched her with an inscrutable expression in his normally crystal-clear eyes. "Yeah, we did. You pulled through, though."

"Obviously."

There was a long, rather tense silence during which Levi stared at her fingernails and Peter found his boots utterly fascinating.

"Lyris- I'm sorry."

Levi looked up, wondered why he kept calling her that (even though it was her name) and gave him a questioning look. "For what?"

"Staying."

Levi's heart clenched, memories flooding her mind of that terrible morning so long ago, when she had left her soul behind to save one that she wasn't even sure existed.

"Peter..." ^Piotr,^ some distant part of her mind said sharply, "I don't blame you for that. You had to- and me... I had to go."

"What do you mean?"

Like before, she didn't know what to say, how to tell him what had happened. It was almost funny- she never could voice the really important stuff properly.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. "Remember how fast we were aging? How much we were all changing?" She tried to ignore the fact that it rhymed and sounded utterly ludicrous.

"Of course." Now he was really confused.

"I-" she chewed her lip, and finally just pried the words out with a mental crowbar. "I was scared for more than me," she said. ^Say it out loud, moron,^ she scolded herself.

"I still don't follow you," Peter said, brow knitting. "Phineas?"

Lyris let out a short, barking laugh. "Not by any means." She sighed heavily. "I never said, because I knew if I did, you'd come with me, and that you were needed here even more."

Peter didn't say anything, just stared at her blankly. Levi shook her head. "I... was with child, I guess you could say..."

There was a crash, a whoosh, and Levi stared in shock. The chair was in a heap on the floor and Peter had vanished.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


Peter stared at the ground, jaw and fists clenched. "Why did she never tell me?" he said. He was rather confused about why her words cut him so deeply, but cut they did.

^She never gave me a chance- she just left. I know she had to, and that if she tried to stay I'd have pushed her across the Boundary myself, but... I would have gone. Nothing was more important...^

More important than what?

"I had to stay," Peter said finally, staring sightlessly at the carpet of green that lay beneath him. He was at the snow-line of the tallest mountain, staring down at the island. "She knew it. And she-" he took a deep breath. "She was doing what she felt was right, I guess."

But it still hurt.

Lyris had left three thousand years ago, at least in Other World time. The child would have been long gone, dead- Levi could be her own descendent, for all they knew.

For half an instant he thought that maybe, through some unimaginable stretch of luck, the child had been one of the early ones brought here. But no... the only ones left of those were Slightly, Nibs, and Tootles- it was a silly idea. He was thereafter completely deflated.

"If it makes you feel any better," said a bitter feminine voice, "I died a week after she was born."

Peter jumped. Levi landed silently beside him, looking caught between the physical pain of her wound and the intense emotional hurt of seeing Peter run away like that, away from her.

"She?"

Levi nodded and sat beside Peter, wrapping her arms around herself. She was pale and windblown from the fast journey over the island. "A little girl- I named her Autumn."

Peter swallowed hard and stared down at the ocean, trying to figure out the source of this unknown ache.

"Phineas promised to take care of her, but- I was so scared," she whispered brokenly. "I knew I was dying, and I knew I wouldn't see her grow up... that Phineas was all she would have. I was so scared for her... lost in that strange world. And besides, how could Phineas care for a week-old child?" Tears were sliding down her face, but she didn't notice. "I just wanted to live, be to able to be her mother... but I was sick, and no one could help. So..."

Peter didn't say anything. He just pulled her close and let her cry.

Half an hour later Levi had calmed down but was still hiccuping, and Peter didn't know what to think beyond mentally insulting himself for being such a great bloody idiot.

"I'm sorry for reacting like that," he said finally. "I just..."

"It's okay," Levi murmured. "You have every right to get wound up over it."

There was a long, stretched out silent moment, in which both considered the lives they might have had and had subsequently lost. How things should have been. Friends, family- all gone into the mists.

"Lyris... should we, you know, start over?" Peter asked hesitantly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know... us."

Levi looked up at him, uncertain. "Why should we start over?"

Peter shrugged helplessly. "With everything that's happened.... I just thought..."

"Hush."

Peter obeyed, looking at Levi with mingled confusion and amusement.

Levi sighed. "Idiot," she said. "I know I'm bad about saying it, but I love you- always have, always did. I never, ever, in all my time out Beyond, forgot you... I just misplaced things. And now..." She absently trailed a finger over Peter's jaw, the gesture at once familiar and foreign. "I don't want to waste time being silly," she finished. "We've been through a lot, yes... but all the more reason to stick together, so we can fix things, heal."

Peter reached up and caught her hand in his own. "Stop that."

"What ever for?" A teasing smile flickered across her face- Peter had missed that smile, he suddenly realized. Missed her.

"It's driving me mad, that's why."

"Really."

"Yes, really."

Levi would have replied, but Peter wasn't having any of it- he kissed her instead.

It was nothing like the brief kiss they'd shared before, when Levi had accused Peter of just trying to distract her (which he had been). This was filled with three millennia of unnamed longing. Untold centuries of pain without a source, suddenly healed.

Eventually, however, they simply had to come up for air. They exchanged goofy grins.

"It's been a long time," Peter said softly. Levi nodded absently. "Yeah."

They made as if to kiss again, but Levi jumped and let out a hiss of pain. "Um, ow," she said ruefully, pushing Peter's hand away from her bandaged side. "That's really sore."

"Sorry," said Peter sheepishly.

There was another long, drawn-out silence. Levi considered Peter's face, wondered why he looked different.

Something like a ghost of a childhood memory flickered in her mind. Place of Truth, her subconscious whispered. I gave it back.

"You're aging!" Levi blurted. "When I changed it, I fixed the kinked bit, and everything's the same again!"

"Huh?"

"Never mind," Levi said quickly, shaking her head. "It's a combination of fairy magic, time flows, and just plain science-fiction weirdness. The Fae kinked up the time-flows when they reversed your age and took your memory, and when you remembered things got out-of-whack... and then when you got shot and I turned it back..." she fished through her wispy half-memories of the incident, trying to figure out what had happened. Peter was staring at her like she'd grown another head.

"I fixed it," she mumbled to herself. "I think that you'll age back to what you're supposed to be, and then quit, and then age like you're supposed to- but you're the Anchor, I dunno if you'll Fade..." she chewed her thumbnail, lost in rather scientific thoughts.

"Lyris."

Levi looked up. "What?"

"Don't worry about it. It's not important."

"But-"

Peter pressed a finger to her lips. "Don't worry about it," he repeated. "What happens, happens- everything will work itself out."

"You never did care much for the big picture," said Levi huffily, although her eyes were filled with mirth. "Always thinking about the here and now."

"What's wrong with that?"

Levi laughed. "Absolutely nothing, but sometimes, Piotr, it's-"

"What was that?"

Levi blinked up at Peter in confusion. He was looking at her with the oddest expression imaginable on his face. "What're you talking about?"

"You said it."

"Said what?"

"My name."

Levi looked confused. "You're name's Peter, Peter."

"No- my name's Piotr, Peter's just the mangled Fae version." Peter bit his lip. "Why do you keep calling me Peter, anyway?"

Levi stared at him, unable to make herself form the words. ^Because I've gotten in the habit of trying to avoid who I really am, she thought. Because you're connected to it, and I feel like a great silly at the moment, but I'm scared that if I start calling you Piotr, it'll make everything really real.^

"I don't know," she said finally. "Just..."

"Avoiding the issue?"

She looked up at him. He looked to be caught between mirth and sadness, an odd mixture to be sure. "Yeah," Levi said softly. "I just... don't know how to react to finding out that I'm not who I thought, and..."

"It's okay," said Peter rather unconvincingly. "You'll get used to everything... eventually..."

There was another long silence.

"Will the Fae leaving affect how we fly?" Levi said absently, trying to break the sudden tension with nonsense. "You had Tink dump fairy-dust all over me to help me fly..."

"I guess so. We'll still fly, just... not have as much control as we do now, or at least until the Fae effects wear off," Peter replied. "It'll be weird to depend on the winds again."

"Yeah."

They paused, watching the island spreading out below them. Levi closed her eyes and took a deep breath, savoring the sounds and smells of her home.

Home. That word resonated within her now, as it never had before. Things like that happen when you realize how much you miss a place.

She opened her eyes and stood, still soaking up the world around her. "Well, whatever I call you, you're still the same person," said Levi. "And I'm sort of the same person. And Never-Land has changed, but it's pretty much the same."

She turned and looked at Peter. Understanding flooded his face.

"Let's go home."

Far away in cool waters of the lagoon, a pale blue water-dragon watched as two figures took flight from the pinnacle of the mountains. A smile spread across his reptilian face.

^The world has come full circle once again. It will happen in the future, and it has happened in the past, but life is a great sphere, and will once again come back to this one eternal moment. The one moment when all things had been reconciled and their hearts are at peace- for the Travelers are never at peace, save in this one, priceless moment where past and future meet and the Place of Truth is whole. And so I wait, silent, for the Travelers to lose their paths again, and seek the council of Time.

For all things seek their own.^

Janus turned and vanished beneath the still waters. Everything was as it should be, and he was going to take a long, well-deserved vacation.


	12. Author's Note and Soundtrack

This story has been nothing if not a labor of love. They always are, when a homeless character suddenly appears in your mind begging for a storyline. The fact that this is the first chapter story I've ever finished makes it especially close to my heart.

I may or may not write a sequel- it entirely depends. But I will most definitely be writing more Peter Pan fiction, however- how can I not? :D Anyway, I've tacked a soundtrack onto the end of the story, just because I felt like it. See if you can find them on the radio or something. Until next time, adios!

  
  


Soundtrack

  
  
  
  


Chapter 1

Face To Face by Garth Brooks

Independence Day by Martina McBride

  
  


Chapter 2

I Believe I Can Fly by Kelly

Born To Fly by Sara Evans

  
  


Chapter 3- explore, talk to Peter

Forever Young by *N Sync

  
  


Chapter 4

The River by Garth Brooks

They're Coming To Take Me Away! By Dr. Demento

  
  


Chapter 5

Once Upon A December from Anastasia 

When You Come Back To Me Again by Garth Brooks

What Do You Say by Reba McIntire

  
  


Chapter 6

Wide Open Spaces by Dixie Chicks

I Love You by Martina McBride

Young by Kenny Chesney

Chapter7

Once You've Loved Somebody by Dixie Chicks

  
  


Chapter 8

The First To Let Go by SHeDAISY

The Dance by Garth Brooks

Remember Me This Way from Casper

  
  


Chapter 9

One More Day by Diamond Rio 

I Drive Myself Crazy by *N Sync

Complicated by Avril Lavigne

  
  


Chapter 10

Rush by SHeDAISY

Six Feet by Creed

  
  


Chapter 11

Don't Happen Twice by Kenny Chesney

At The Beginning from Anastasia

That's When I'll Stop Loving You by *N Sync

  
  


Overall

  
  


All Over You by SHeDAISY

Keep Me by SHeDAISY

Every Now and Then by Garth Brooks

Somewhere, Someday by *N Sync

Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely by Backstreet Boys

Back To Your Heart by Backstreet Boys

You Only Paint The Picture Once by Alabama

Saints & Angels by Sara Evans

You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone by Brooks & Dunn

You Were Mine by Dixie Chicks


End file.
